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general history 




HILIP VAN NESS MYERS 

honorary lecturer in HISTORY in the ttm " 

AUTHOR of "ANCIENT HISTORY ” Y ° F CINCIN NATI 

History,” "history ?’ MEDI ^ VAl ^nd modern 

’ HISTORY as past ETHICS,” etc. 


SECOA r D REVISED 


edition 



GINN AND COMPANY 

BOSTON . NEW YORK . CHICACO 
Atlanta 1la go . London 

lLMIA • DALLAS • COLIJIUrttc - . 

OLUMBUS • SAN FRANCISCO 









1889, 1906, 1917, 1921, 1923, BY PHILIP VAN NESS MYERS 
entered at stationers’ hall 




823.4 

.VA^Ar 

I c \£j'b 


gnic gUftcngum ffrcgj 

GINN AND COMPANY • PRO¬ 

PRIETORS • BOSTON • U.S.A. 


JON -4 1923 




2 > 

y 


PREFACE TO THE SECOND REVISED EDITION 

The present work is the second revised edition of my " General 
History,” the first edition of which was published thirty-two years 
ago. The original text of the ancient and mediaeval periods has 
here been severely compressed in order to make room for a 
fuller treatment of the history of modern times. A fresh chapter 
is devoted to the World War and the work of the Paris Peace 
Conference. 

P.V.N.M. 

College IIlll, Cincinnati ' 


in 


The real history of the human race is the history of tendencies which 
are perceived by the mind, and not of events which are discovered by 
the senses.— Buckle 


Historical facts should not be a burden to the memory but an illumi¬ 
nation of the soul.— Lord Acton 


But history ought surely in some degree, if it is worth anything, to 
anticipate the lessons of time. We shall no doubt be wise after the 
event; we study history that we may be wise before the event.— Seeley 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER PAGE 

I. General Introduction : Prehistoric Times .... i 

PART I. ANCIENT HISTORY 

DIVISION I. THE EASTERN NA TIONS 

II. Races and Groups of Peoples.12 

III. Ancient Egypt. 15 

I. Political History.[3 

II. Religion, Arts, and General Culture.18 

IV. Babylonia and Assyria.24 

I. The Early City-Kingdoms of Babylonia and the Old 

Babylonian Empire.24 

II. The Assyrian Empire .29 

III. The Chaldean or New Babylonian Empire (625-38 b.c.) 33 

V. The Hebrews.35 

VI. The Phoenicians.39 

VII. The Persian Empire (558-330 p,.c.).42 

VIII. The East Asian Peoples.47 

I. India.47 

II. China. 49 

DIVISION II. GREECE 

% 

IX. The Land and the People.52 

X. Greek Legends; the Aegean Civilization.57 

XI. The Heritage of the Historic Greeks.62 

XII. The Growth of Sparta.69 

XIII. The Age of Colonization and of Tyrannies .... 73 

I. The Age of Colonization (about 750-600 b.c.) 73 

II. The Tyrannies (about 650-500 b.c.).77 


v 





















VI 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER P ACi 

XIV. The History of Athens up to the Persian Wars. 79 

XV. The Persian Wars (500-479 b.c.).S5 

XVI. The Athenian Empire.92 

XVII. The Peloponnesian War; the Spartan and the 

Theban Supremacy.: . . . 98 

I. The Peloponnesian YVar (431-404 b.c.) . . . . 98 

II. The Spartan and the Theban Supremacy . . . . 105 

XVIII. Alexander the Great(336-323 b.c.).109 

XIX. The Graeco-Oriental World from the Death of 
Alexander to the Conquest of Greece by the 

Romans (323-146b.c.).115 

XX. Greek Architecture, Sculpture, and Painting . u'9 

I. Architecture.I 19 

II. Sculpture and Painting.123 

XXI. Greek Literature.127 

XXII. Greek Philosophy and Science.134 

XXIII. Social Life of the Greeks.141 


DIVISION III. ROME 

XXIV. Italy and its Early Inhabitants. 

XXV. Roman Institutions; Rome under the Kings . . 

I. Society and Government. 

II. Religion. 

III. Rome under the Kings (legendary date 753-509 b.c.) 

XXVI. The Early Republic; Plebeians become Citizens 
with Full Rights (509-367 b.c.) . 

XXVII. The Conquest and Unification of Italy (367- 

264 b. c.). 

XXVII 1 . Expansion of Rome beyond the Peninsula . . . 

I. The First Punic War (264-241 b.c.). 

, II. The, Second Punic War (218-201 b.c.). 

III. Expansion of Rome into the East. 

IV. The Third Punic War (149-146 b.c.) 


146 

150 

150 

154 

157 


1 59 


166 


172 


172 

i/4 


1 


/ / 


1 79 















CONTENTS vii 

CHAPTER PAGE 

XXIX. The Last Century of the Republic (133-31 u.c.) 181 

XXX. The Establishment of the Empire and the Prin- 

cipate of Augustus Cesar (31 b.c.-a.d. 14) . . 200 

XXXI. From Tiberius to the Accession of Diocletian 

(a. d. 14-284). 206 

XXXII. Diocletian and Constantine the Great . . . 215 
I. The Reign of Diocletian (a.d. 284-305) . . ! . 21 5 
II. Reign of Constantine the Great (a.d. 306-337) . 218 


XXXIII. The Last Century of the Empire in the West 

(a.d. 376-476).222 

XXXIV. Architecture, Literature, Law, and Social Life 

among the Romans . . . 233 

I. Architecture and Engineering.233 

II. Literature, Philosophy, and Law.235 

III. Social Life.239 

PART II. MEDIAEVAL AND MODERN PIISTORY. 


XXXV. Introduction. 245 

DIVISION I. THE MIDDLE AGES 
FIRST PERIOD. THE DARK AGES 

(From the Fall of Rome to the Eleventh Century) 

XXXVI. The Barbarian Kingdoms.250 

XXXVII. The Church and its Institutions.254 

I. The Conversion of the Barbarians .254 

II. The Rise of Monasticism.257 

III. The Rise of the Papacy.259 

XXXVIII. The Fusion of Latin and Teuton. 264 

XXXIX. The Roman Empire in the East. 268 

XL. The Rise of Islam.271 

XLI. Charlemagne and the Restoration of the Em¬ 
pire in the West. 277 

XLII. The Northmen: the Coming of the Vikings . . 282 



















viii CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

SECOND PERIOD. THE AGE OF REVIVAL 

(From the Opening of the Eleventh Century to the Discovery of America by Columbus in 1492) 

XLIII. Feudalism and Chivalry.286 

I. Feudalism.286 

II. Chivalry.294 

XLIV. The Norman Conquest of England.298 

XLV. The Papacy and the Empire.303 

XLVI. The Crusades (1096-1273).309 

XLVII. Supremacy of the Papacy; Decline of its Tem¬ 
poral Power.318 

XLVIII. Turanian Conquests; Mongols and Turks . . . 324 

XLIX. The Growth of the Towns. 329 

L. The Universities and the Schoolmen.335 

LI. Growth of the Nations: Formation of National 

Governments and Literatures.340 

I. England.34 r 

II. France.351 

III. Spain.333 

IV. Germany.337 

V. Russia.338 

VI. Italy.359 

LII. The Renaissance.363 


DIVISION II. THE MODERN AGE 

THIRD PERIOD. THE ERA OF THE REFORMATION 

(From the Discovery of America, in 1492, to the Peace of Westphalia, in 1648) 

LIU. Geographical Discoveries and the Beginnings of 

Modern Colonization. 

LIV. The Beginnings of the Reformation 

LV. The Ascendancy of Spain; her Relation to the 
Catholic Reaction. 

I. Reign of the Emperor Charles V (1519-1556) 

II. Spain under Philip II (1556-1598) 


370 

383 

399 

399 

404 


















CONTENTS 


IX 


CHAPTER 

LVI. The Tudors and the English Reformation (1485— 


i 6o 3 ).407 

I. Introductory. . 407 

II. The Reign of Henry VII (1485-1509) .... 409 

III. England severed from the Papacy by Henry VIII 

( I 5 ° 9 - I 547 ). 4IO 

IV. Changes in Doctrine and Ritual under Edward VI 

( 1547 - 1553 ). 40 

V. Reaction under Mary (1553-1558).418 

VI. Final Establishment of Protestantism under Eliza¬ 
beth (155S-1603).420 

LVII. The Revolt of the Netherlands; Rise of the 

Dutch Republic (1572-1609).428 

LVIII. The Huguenot Wars in France (1562-1629) . . . . 435 

LIX. The Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648).442 


FOURTH PERIOD. THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL 

REVOLUTION 

(From the Peace of Westphalia (1648) to the Treaty of Versailles (1919)) 

/. THE AGE OF ABSOLUTE MONARCH Y (1648-1789) 

LX. Introductory : the Doctrine of the Divine Right 
of Kings and the Maxims of the Enlightened 


Despots . 449 

LXI. The Ascendancy of France under Louis XIV (1643- 

W15). 453 

LXII. The Stuarts and the English Revolution (1603- 

1689). 462 

I. The First Two Stuarts.462 

II. The Commonwealth and the Protectorate (1649- 

1660) 472 

III. The Restored Stuarts.480 

IV. Reign of William and Mary (1689-1702) . . . 483 

ft 

LXIII. The Rise of Russia: Peter the Great (1682-1796) 485 

LXIV. The Rise of Prussia: Frederick the Great (1740- 

1786). 493 

LXV. England in the Eighteenth Century ...... 501 

















X 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER ' PAGE 

II . THE FRENCH REVOLUTION AND NAPOLEONIC ERA ( 1789 - 1815 ) 

LXVI. The French Revolution (i 789-1799).512 

I. Causes of the Revolution ; the States-General of 

1789. 5 12 

II. The National or Constituent Assembly (June 17, 

1789-September 30, 1791).520 

III. The Legislative Assembly (October 1, 1791-Sep- 

tember 19, 1792).525 

IV. The National Convention (September 20, 1792- 

October 26, 1795).528 

V. The Directory (October 27, 1795-November 9, 

U 99 ) . 537 

LXVII. Tin: Consulate and the Napoleonic Empire (1799- 

i8i 5 ) .543 

I. The Consulate (1799-1804).543 

II. The Napoleonic Empire; the War of Liberation 

(1804-1815).546 


III . FROM THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA TO THE TREATY OF 

VERSAILLES ( 1815 - 1919 ) 


LXVIII. The Congress of Vienna and MetterniCh . . . 

LXIX. France from the Second Restoration to the 
World War (1815-1914). 

LXX. England from the Battle of Waterloo to the 
World War (1815-1914). 

I. Progress toward Democracy. 

II. Extension of the Principle of Religious Equality 

III. England’s Relations with Ireland 


5 % 

573 

580 

580 

586 

590 


LXXI. The Liberation and Unification of Italy 
LXXII. The Making of the New German Empire 

LXXIII. Russia # from the Congress of Vienna to the 
• World War (1815-1914). 

I. Russia s V ars against Turkey and her Allies 

II. The Emancipation of the Serfs, and the Liberal 
Movement 


594 

604 


620 

620 

624 













CONTEXTS 


xi 


CHAPTER page 

LXXIV. The New Industrialism .628 


LXXV. European Expansion in the Nineteenth and the 

Early Twentieth Century .633 


I. Causes and General Phases of the Expansion 


Movement.633 

II. The Expansion of England.636 

III. The Expansion of France.642 

IV. The Expansion of Germany.644 

V. The Expansion of Russia.645 

VI. The Expansion of the United States .... 647 

1 , 

VII. Check to European Expansion and Aggression 

in Eastern Asia.648, 

LXXVI. Evolution toward World Federation .... 655 

LXXVII. The World War (1914-1918).660 


I. Causes of the War and Train of Preceding Events 660 
II. Outstanding Events of the War . . . . . . 677 


LXXVIII. The Post-War Period 


712 


APPENDIX 


INDEX 


X11L 




















































. 
















































LIST OF MAPS 

COLORED MAPS 

Based in the main on Kiepert, Schrader, Droysen, Spruner-Sieglin, Poole, and 
Freeman. Many of the maps have been so modified by additions and omissions that 


as they here appear they are practically new charts. 

PAGE 

Ancient Egypt. 14 

Assyrian Empire, about 660 b.c .28 

The Persian Empire at its Greatest Extent, about 500 b.c .44 

General Reference Map of Ancient Greece.54 

Greece and the Greek Colonies .'.74 

Empire of Alexander the Great, about 323 b.c .no 

Italy before the Growth of the Roman Empire.146 


The Roman Empire at its Greatest Extent (under Trajan, a.d. 98-117) 210 

Map showing Barbarian Inroads on the Fall of the Roman Empire 


(movements shown down to a.d. 477).226 

The Saracen Empire about a.d. 750.272 

The Western Empire as divided at Verdun, a.d. 843.278 

Hitchin Manor, England, about 1816.290 

Europe and the Orient in 1096.310 

The Spanish Kingdoms in 1360.354 

Globe de Martin Behaim, 1492, and Globe Dore vers 1528 .... 372 

Explorations and Colonies of the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Seventeenth 

Centuries.378 

Europe at the Accession of the Emperor Charles V, 1519 .... 400 

Europe after the Peace of Westphalia, 1648.444 

The Partition of Poland. 49 ° 

Prussia under Frederick the Great, 1740-1786. 5 °° 

Central Europe in 1801. 556 

Europe after 1815.566 

Italy, 1814-1859. 598 

The Partition of Africa.636 

The Far East. 6 5 2 

Europe in 1914. 

The NeW Europe. 7°6 


xiii 























XIV 


LIST OF MAPS 


SKETCH MAPS 

PAGE 

The World according to Homer.. . 64 

The Seven Hills of Rome.157 

The Roman Domain and the Latin Confederacy in the Time of the 

Early Republic, about 450 b.c .162 

The Barbarian Kingdoms.250 

The Roman Empire under Justinian.269 

Discoveries of the Northmen.283 

The Empire of the Ottoman Turks about 1464.328 

The Hansa Towns and their Chief Foreign Settlements.331 

The Plantagenet Possessions in England and France.342 

Ethnographic Map of Austria-Hungary.618 

Southeastern Europe after the Treaty of Berlin (1878).624 

Asian Turkey and the Bagdad Railway.666 

Southeastern Europe, 1914.674 

Mittel-Europa and Turkish Annex.686 

The Western Front, July 15, 1918.697 















GENERAL HESTOR\ 


CHAPTER I . 

GENERAL INTRODUCTION: PREHISTORIC TIMES 

1 . The Prehistoric and the Historic Age. The immensely 
long periods of human life which lie back of the time when man 
began to keep written or graven records of events form what is 
called the Prehistoric Age. The comparatively few centuries of 
human experience made known to us through such records com¬ 
prise the Historic Age. For Egypt the historic period begins about 
4000 b.c.; for the Mediterranean regions of Europe it opens about 
1000 b.c.; for the countries of central and northern Europe, speak¬ 
ing broadly, not until about the beginning of our era; and for the 
New World only a little over four hundred years ago. 

2 . How we Learn about Prehistoric Man. A knowledge of 
what manner of man prehistoric man was and what he did is indis¬ 
pensable to the historical student; for the dim prehistoric ages of 
human life form the childhood of the race—and the man cannot 
be understood without at least some knowledge of the child. 

But how, in the absence of written records, are we to find out 
anything about prehistoric man? In many ways we are able to 
learn much about him. First, by studying the life of present-day 
backward races; for what they now are, the great races of history, 
we have reason to believe, were in their prehistoric age. 

Again, the men who lived before the dawn of history left behind 
them many things which witness as to what manner of men they 
were. In ancient gravel beds along the streams where they fished 
or hunted, in the caves which afforded them shelter, in the refuse 
heaps (kitchen middens) on the sites of their villages or camping 
places, or in the graves where they laid away their dead, we find 


2 


GENERAL INTRODUCTION 


[§ 3 


great quantities of tools and weapons and other articles shaped 
by their hands. 1 From these various things we learn what skill 
these early men had acquired as tool makers, what degree of cul¬ 
ture they had attained, and something of their conception of the 
life in the hereafter. 

3 . Divisions of Prehistoric Times. The long period of pre¬ 
historic times is divided into different ages, or stages of culture, 
which are named from the material which man used in the manu¬ 
facture of his weapons and tools. The earliest epoch is known as 
the Old Stone Age; the following one as the New Stone Age; and 
the later period as the Age of Metals. The division lines between 
these ages are not sharply drawn. In most countries the epochs 
run into and overlap one another, just as in modern times the Age 
of Steam runs into and overlaps the Age of Electricity. 

4 . The Old Stone Age. In the Old Stone Age man’s chief 
implements were usually made of stone, and especially of chipped 
flints, though bones, horns, tusks, and other materials were also 
used in their manufacture. These rude implements and weapons 
of his, found mostly in river gravel beds and in caves, are the 
very oldest things in existence which we know positively to have 
been shaped by human hands. 

The man of the Old Stone Age in Europe saw the retreating 
glaciers of the great Ice Age, of which geology tells us. Among 
the animals which lived with him on that continent (we know 
most of early man there) were the woolly-haired mammoth, the 
bison, the wild ox, the cave bear, the rhinoceros, the wild horse, 
and the reindeer—species which are no longer found in the regions 
where primitive man hunted them. As the climate and the vege¬ 
tation changed, some of these animals became extinct, while others 
of the cold-loving species retreated up the mountains or migrated 
toward the north. 

What we know of man of the Old Stone Age may be summed up 
as follows. he was a hunter and fisher; his habitation was often 

1 Besides these material things that can be seen and handled, there are many im¬ 
material things — as, for instance, language, which is as full of human memories as the 
rocks are of fossils that light up for us the dim ages before history. 


§4] 


THE OLD STONE AGE 


3 


merely a cave or a rock shelter; his implements were in the main 
roughly shaped flints; he had no domestic animals save possibly 
the dog ; he was ignorant of the arts of spinning and weaving, and 
practically also of the art of making pottery. 1 

The length of the Old Stone Age no one knows; we do not 
attempt to reckon its duration by years or by centuries, but only 


l 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 



Fig. i. Implements of the Old Stone Age 


No. i, the core of a flint nodule, was the earliest and the characteristic tool and weapon 
of man of the Old Stone Age. It served a variety of purposes, and was used without a 
handle, being clutched with the hand (No. g), and hence is called the hand-ax or fist-ax. 
No 2 is a flint flake struck from a nodule. No. 8 (a harpoon-point) tells us that the man 
of this age was a fisher as well as a hunter. From No. 6 (a bone needle) we may infer 
that he made clothing of skins, for since he had not yet learned the art of weaving (the 
spindle-whorl does not appear till the next epoch; see Fig. 5 and explanatory note), the 
material of which he made clothing could hardly have been anything else than the skins 
of animals killed in the chase. That skins were carefully prepared is evidenced by the 
scraper (Nos. 4 , //), an implement used in dressing hides. No. 7 (an engraving-tool) 
tells us that art had its beginnings in the Old Stone Age 

by geologic ages. We do know, however, that the long, slow ages 
did not pass away without some progress having been made by 
primeval man, which assures us that, though so lowly a creature, 
he was endowed with the capacity for growth and improvement. 
Before the end of the period he had acquired wonderful skill in 
the chipping of flint points and blades; he had learned the use of 
fire, as we know from the traces of fire found in the places where 

1 The Australians and New Zealanders when first discovered were in the Old Stone 
Age stage of culture ; the Tasmanians had not yet reached it. 












4 


GENERAL INTRODUCTION 


[§ 4 


he made his abode; and he had probably invented the bow and 
arrow, as we find this weapon in very general use at the opening 

of the following epoch. 
This important invention 
gave man what was to be 
one of his chief weapons 
in the chase and in war 
for thousands of years— 
down to and even after 
the invention of fire¬ 
arms late in the historic 
period. 

But most prophetic of the great future of this savage or semi¬ 
savage cave man of the Old Stone Age was the fine artistic talent 
that some tribes or races of the period possessed ; for, strange as it 
may seem, among the men of this epoch there were some amazingly 
good artists. Besides numer¬ 
ous specimens of his draw¬ 
ings and carvings of animals, 
chiefly on bone and ivory, 
which have been found from 
time to time during the last 
half century and more, there 
have recently been discov¬ 
ered many large drawings 
and paintings on the walls of 
various grottoes in southern 
France and northern Spain. 1 These wonderful pictures are mainly 
representations of animals. The species most often depicted are 
the bison, the horse, the wild ox, the reindeer, and the mammoth. 

1 The first of these wall paintings were discovered in 1879, but that they really were 
of the immense age claimed for them was not established beyond all doubt until 1902. 
The pictures are generally found in the depths of caverns where not a ray of the light 
of day ever enters. They were made by the light of lamps fed with the fat of animals. 
It is almost certain that they had a magical purpose, that is, were made in the belief that 
by a species of magic they would cause an increase of the game animals represented, or 
would render them a sure prey in the chase. 



V 

Fig. 3. Wall Picture from the 
Cavern of Font-de-Gaume, France 
(After Breuil) 



Fig. 2. Engraving of a Mammoth on 
the Fragment of a Tusk 
(Old Stone Age) 









Fig. 4. Specimens of the Art of the European Cave Man 

These remarkable animal forms were painted, in colors still well preserved, on the 
walls of French and Spanish caverns, by a race of hunter-artists of the Old Stone Age. 
They were drawn probably at least ten or fifteen thousand years before the Pyramids 

were erected 













§5] 


THE NEW STONE AGE 


5 


This astonishing art of the European cave men shows that primi¬ 
tive man, probably because he is a hunter and lives so close to the 
wild life around him, often has a keener eye for animal forms 
and movements than the artists of more advanced races. The 
history of art (sculpture, engraving, and painting) must hereafter 
begin with the works of these artist hunters of the Old Stone Age. 



Fig. 5. Implements of the New Stone Age 

These tools and weapons mark a great advance over the chipped flints of the Old 
Stone Age (Fig. 1). They embody the results of thousands'(perhaps tens of thousands) 
of years of human experience and invention, and mark the first steps in human progress. 
Nos. 1-3 and 7-/0 show how after unmeasured ages man had learned to increase the 
effectiveness of his tools and weapons by grinding them smooth and sharp, and by 
fitting handles to them. No. 3 records the incoming of the art of making pottery — one 
of the most important industrial arts prior to the Age of Iron. No. 6 (a spindle-whorl 
of stone or of hardened clay used as a weight in twisting thread) informs us that man 
had learned the civilizing arts of spinning and weaving 


5. The New Stone Age. The Old Stone Age was followed by 
the New. Chipped or hammered stone implements still continued 
to be used, but what characterizes this period was the use of ground 
or polished implements. Man had learned the art of grinding his 
tools and weapons to a sharp edge with sand on a grinding stone. 1 
To his ax he had also learned to attach a handle, which made it 
a vastly more effective implement (Fig. 5). 


1 The North American Indians were in this stage of culture at the time of the dis¬ 
covery of the New World. The Egyptians and Babylonians were just emerging from it 
when they first appeared in history. 















6 


GENERAL INTRODUCTION 




Besides these improvements in his tools and weapons, the man 
of the New Stone Age had made other great advances beyond the 
man of the Old Stone Age. He had learned to till the soil, he had 
learned to make fine pottery, to spin, and to weave; he had do¬ 
mesticated various wild animals j he built houses, often on piles on 

the margins of lakes and morasses; and 
he buried his dead in such a manner— 
with accompanying gifts (Fig. 6)—as 
to show that he had a firm belief in a 
future life. 1 

6. The Age of Metals. Finally the 

long ages of stone passed into the Age 
of Metals. This age falls into three 
subdivisions—the Age of Copper, the 
Age of Bronze, and the Age of Iron. 
Some peoples, like the African negroes, 
passed directly from the use of stone to 
the use of iron; but in most of the coun¬ 
tries of the Orient and of Europe the 
three metals came into use one after the 
other and in the order named. Speaking 
broadly, we may say that the Age of 
Metals began for the more advanced 
peoples of the ancient world between 
4000 and 3000 b.c. 

The history of metals has been de¬ 
clared to be the history of civilization. 
Indeed, it would be almost impossible to overestimate their 
importance to man. Man could do very little with stone imple¬ 
ments compared with what he could do with metal implements. 
It was a great labor for primitive man, even with the aid of 
fire, to fell a tree with a stone ax and to hollow out the trunk 
for a boat. He was hampered in all his tasks by the rudeness of 


Fig. 6. A Prehistoric 
Egyptian Tomb 
(After /. de Morgan ) 

Primitive man’s belief in a 
future life led him to place 
in the grave of the deceased 
weapons, implements, food, 
and articles of personal adorn¬ 
ment for use in the other 
world. Outfits of this kind 
found in prehistoric graves 
are an important source of 
our knowledge of man before 
recorded history begins 


1 Recent discoveries have revealed traces of this belief even before the close of the 
Old Stone Age. Several cases of burial have been found with rich grave outfits of flint 
implements and weapons, which point unmistakably to a belief in a life after death. 


§ 7 ] 


THE ORIGIN OF THE USE OF FIRE 


7 


his tools. It was only as the bearer of metal implements and 
weapons that he began really to subdue the earth and to get 
dominion over nature. All the higher cultures of the ancient world 
with which history begins were based on the knowledge and use 
of metals. 

7. The Origin of the Use of Fire. That fire was known to 
man of the Old Stone Age we learn, as already noted, from the 



Fig. 7. Primitive Methods of making Fire. (After Tylor ) 

Doubtless the discovery that fire could be produced by friction came about through 
the operation of the primitive toolmaker. The processes of smoothing, polishing, and 
grooving softwood implements, and of boring holes in them with pieces of harder wood, 
could hardly fail of revealing the secret. The character of the fire-making devices of 
present-day savages point the way of the discovery 

traces of it discovered in the caves and rock shelters which were 
his abode. No people has ever been found so low in the scale of 
culture as to be without it. 

As to the way in which early man came into possession of fire, 
we have no knowledge. Possibly he kindled his first fire from a 
glowing lava stream or from some burning tree trunk set aflame by 
the lightning. 1 However this may be, he had in the earliest times 
learned to produce the vital spark by means of friction. The fire 
borer, according to Tylor, is among the oldest of human inventions. 
Since the awakening of the spark was difficult, the fire once alight 
was carefully fed -so that it should not go out. The duty of 
watching the flame naturally fell to the old women or to the 
daughters of the community, to which custom may be traced the 
origin of such institutions as that among the Romans of the six 

1 Fires thus lighted are surprisingly numerous. During the year 1914 there were 
over 2000 fires started by lightning in the national forests of the United States. 













8 


GENERAL INTRODUCTION 


[§8 


vestal virgin priestesses, the keepers of the sacred fire which flamed 
on the common household hearth in the temple of the goddess 
Vesta (sect. 237). 

Only gradually did primeval man learn the various properties 
of fire and discover the different uses to which it might be put, 
just as historic man has learned only gradually the possible uses 
of electricity. By some happy accident or discovery he learned 
that it would harden clay, and he became a potter; that it would 
smelt ores,' and he became a worker in metals; and that it would 
aid him in a hundred other ways. "Fire,” says Joly, "presided 
at the birth of nearly every art, or quickened its progress.” The 
place it holds in the development of the family, of religion, and 
of the industrial arts is revealed by these three significant words— 
"the hearth, the altar, the forge.” No other agent has contributed 
more to the progress of civilization. Indeed, it is difficult to con¬ 
ceive how without fire primitive man could ever have emerged 
from the Age of Stone. 

8. The Domestication of Animals. "When we visit a farm at 
the present day and observe the friendly nature of the life which 
goes on there,— the horse proudly and obediently bending his neck 
to his yoke ; the cow offering her streaming udder to the milkmaid ; 
the woolly flock going forth to the field, accompanied by their 
trusty protector, the dog, who comes fawning to his master,— 
this familiar intercourse between man and beast seems so natural 
that it is scarcely conceivable that things may once have been 
different. And yet in the picture we see only the final result of 
thousands and thousands of years of the work of civilization, the 
enormous importance of which simply escapes our notice because 
it is by everyday wonders that our amazement is least excited.” 1 

The most of this work of inducing the animals of the fields and 
woods to become, as it were, members or dependents of the human 
family, to enter into a league of friendship with man and to be¬ 
come his helpers, was done by prehistoric man. When man appears 
in history, he appears surrounded by almost all the domestic 
animals known to us today. The dog was already his faithful 

1 Schrader, Prehistoric Antiquities of the Aryan Peoples (1890), p. 259. 


§9] 


THE DOMESTICATION OF PLANTS 


9 


companion—and probably the first won from among the wild 
creatures; the sheep, the cow, and the goat shared his shelter 
with him. 

The domestication of animals had such a profound effect upon 
human life and occupation that it marks the opening of a new 
epoch in history. The hunter became a shepherd, and the hunting 
stage in culture gave place to the pastoral. 1 

9. The Domestication of Plants. Long before the dawn of 
history those peoples of the Old World who were to play great 
parts in early historic times had advanced from the pastoral to 
the agricultural stage of culture. Just as the step from the hunting 
to the pastoral stage had been taken with the aid of a few of the 
most social species of animals, so had this second upward step, 
from the pastoral to the agricultural stage, been taken by means 
of the domestication of a few of the innumerable species of the 
seed grasses and plants growing wild in field and wood. 

Wheat and barley, two of the most important of the cereals, 
were probably first domesticated somewhere in Asia, and from 
there carried over Europe. These grains, together with oats and 
rice, have been, in the words of Tylor, "the mainstay of human 
life and the great moving power of civilization.” 

The domestication of plants and the art of tilling the soil ef¬ 
fected a great revolution in prehistoric society. The wandering life 
of the hunter and the herder now gave way to a settled mode of 
existence. Cities were built, and within them began to be amassed 
those treasures, material and immaterial, which constitute the 
precious heirloom of humanity. This attachment to the soil of 
the hitherto roving clans and tribes meant also the beginning of 
political life. The cities were united into states and great king¬ 
doms were formed, and the political history of man began, as in 
the valleys of the Nile and the Euphrates. 

10. The Invention of Writing. Still another achievement of 
prehistoric man was the invention of writing. There are two kinds 
of writing,—picture writing and phonetic or sound writing. In 

1 It is of interest to note that most of the wild stocks whence have come our domestic 
animals are of Old World origin. 


10 


GENERAL INTRODUCTION 


[§ 10 

picture writing the characters are in the main rude pictures of 
material objects. This way of representing ideas seems natural to> 
man. It is a form of writing that children love to use. 

In phonetic writing the symbols represent sounds of the human 
voice. There are three stages. In the first stage each picture 
or symbol stands for a whole word. In sucb a system as this there 
must of course be as many characters or signs as there are words 
in the language represented. In working out their system of 
writing the Chinese stuck fast at this point (sect. 77). 

In the second stage the symbols are used to represent syllables 
instead of words. This reduces at once the number of signs needed 
from many thousands to a few hundreds, since the words of any 
given language are formed by the combination of a comparatively 
small number of syllables. With between four and five hundred 
symbols the ancient Babylonians and Assyrians, who used this 
form of writing, were able to represent all the words of their 
respective languages (sect. 36). 

While a collection of syllabic signs is a great improvement over 
a collection of word signs, still it is a clumsy instrument for 
expressing ideas, and the system requires still further simplifica¬ 
tion. This is done and the third and final step in developing a 
convenient system of writing is taken when the symbols are 
used to represent not syllables but elementary sounds of the 
human voice, of which there are only a few—a score or two 
— in any language. Then the symbols become true letters, a 
complete collection of which is called an alphabet, and the 
mode of writing alphabetic. This is the system of writing which 
we employ. 

What people invented the first alphabet is unknown; but as 
early as the ninth century b.c. we find several Semitic peoples in 
possession of a true alphabet. Through various agencies, particu¬ 
larly through the agency of trade and commerce, this alphabet 
was spread east and west and thus became the parent of all except 
one 1 of the alphabets employed by the peoples of the ancient 
world of history. 


1 See p. 27, n. i. 


§ 11] THE GREAT BEQUEST n 

With the invention of phonetic writing and the practice of 
keeping records, with names of actors and dates of events, the 
truly historic age for man begins. 

11. The Great Bequest. We of this twentieth century esteem 
ourselves fortunate in being the heirs of a noble heritage, the heirs 
of all the past. We are not used to thinking of the men of the 
first generation of historic times as also the heirs of a great legacy. 
But even the scanty review we have made of what was discovered 
and thought out by man during the long epochs before history 
began cannot fail to have impressed us with the fact that a vast 
bequest was made by prehistoric to historic man. 

If our hasty glance at those far-away times has done nothing 
more than this, then we shall never again regard history quite as 
may have been our wont. We shall see the story of man to be 
more wonderful than we once thought, the path which he has fol¬ 
lowed to be longer and more toilsome than we ever imagined. 
But our interest in the traveler will have been deepened through 
our knowing more of his origin, of his early hard and narrow life, 
and of his first painful steps in the path of civilization. We shall 
follow with greater concern and sympathy this wonderful being, 
child of earth and child of heaven, this heir of all the ages, as he 
journeys on and upward with his face toward the light. 

References . 1 Osborn, H. F., Men of the Old Stone Age (" The most impor¬ 
tant work on the evolution of our own species that has appeared since 
Darwin’s ' Descent of Man.’ ”— Theodore Roosevelt). Sollas, W. J., Ancient 
Hunters. Hoernes, M., Primitive Man. Keary, C. F., The Dawn of History. 
Starr, F., Some First Steps in Human Progress. Tylor, E. B., Anthropology, 
chaps, iv, vii, ''Language” and "Writing”; Primitive Culture, 2 vols. Lub¬ 
bock, Sir J., Prehistoric Times. Mason, O. T., First Steps in Human Culture 
and The Origin of Invention. Davenport, E., Domesticated Animals and 
Plants. Shaler, N. S., Domesticated Animals. Hoffmann, W. J., The Begin¬ 
nings of Writing. Clodd, E., The Story of the Alphabet. Taylor, I., The 
Alphabet , 2 vols. Holbrook, F., Cave, Mound, and Lake Dwellers (juvenile). 
Frobenius, The Childhood of Man, chap, xxvii. 


1 For titles of Source Books containing selections from the original sources for the 
history of different periods and for Topics for Class Reports, see Appendix. 


PART I. ANCIENT HISTORY 


DIVISION I. THE EASTERN NATIONS 


CHAPTER II 


RACES AND GROUPS OF PEOPLES 


12 . Subdivisions of the Historic Age. We begin now our 
study of the Historic Age—a record of about six or seven thou¬ 
sand years. The story of historic times is usually divided into 
three parts—Ancient, Mediaeval, and Modern History. Ancient 
History begins, as already indicated, with the earliest peoples of 
which we can gain any certain knowledge through written records, 
and extends to the-break-up of the Roman. Empire in the West, 
in the fifth century of the Christian era. Mediaeval History em¬ 
braces the period, the so-called Middle Ages, about one thousand 
years in length, lying between the fall of Rome and the discovery 
of the New World by Columbus, a.d. 1492. Modern History 
commences with the close of the mediaeval period and extends to 
the present time. 1 

13 . The Races of Mankind in the Historic Period. Distinc¬ 
tions mainly in bodily characteristics, such as form, color, and 
features, divide the human species into many types or races, of 
which the three chief are known as the Black or Negro Race, the 
Yellow or Mongolian Race, and the White or Caucasian Race. 2 


1 It is thought preferable by some scholars to let the decisive beginning of the 
great Teutonic migration (a.d. 376), or the restoration of the Empire by Charlemagne 
(a.d. 800), mark the end of the period of Ancient History, and to call all after that 
Modern History. Some also prefer to date the beginning of the modern period from the 
capture of Constantinople by the Turks (a.d. 1453) ; while still others speak of it in a 
general way as commencing about the close of the fifteenth century, at which time there 
were many inventions and discoveries, and great movements in the intellectual world. 

2 The classification given is simply a convenient and practical one. It disregards 
various minor groups of uncertain ethnic relationship. 




§14] 


THE BLACK RACE 


13 


But we must not suppose each of these three types to be sharply 
marked off from the others; they‘shade into one another by in¬ 
sensible gradations. There is a great number of intermediate types 
or subraces. 

It is probable that the physical and mental differences of exist¬ 
ing races arose through their ancestors’ having been subjected to 
different climatic influences and to different conditions of life 
through long periods of prehistoric time. There has been no 
perceptible change in the great types of 
mankind during the historic period. The 
paintings upon the oldest Egyptian 
monuments show us that at the dawn of 
history the principal races were as dis¬ 
tinctly marked as now, each bearing its 
racial badge of color and features. 

14 . The Black Race. Africa south of 
the Sahara is the true home of the typical- 
folk (the negroes) of the Black Race, but 
we find them on all the other continents 
and on many of the islands of the seas, 
whither they have migrated or been 
carried as slaves by the stronger races. 

15 . The Yellow or Mongolian Race. Eastern and northern 
Asia is the central seat of the Mongolian Race. Many of the 
Mongolian tribes are wandering herdsmen, who roam over the 
vast Asian plains north of the great ranges of the Himalayas; 
their leading part in history has been to harass peoples of 
settled habits. 

But the most important peoples of this type are the Japanese 
and the Chinese. The latter constitute probably a fifth or more 
of the entire population of the earth. Already in times very remote 
this people had developed a civilization quite advanced on various 
lines, but having reached a certain stage in culture they did not 
continue to make so marked a progress. Not until recent times 
did either the Chinese or the Japanese come to play a real part 
in world history. 



Fig. 8. Negro Captives 
(From the monuments of 
Thebes) 

Illustrating the permanence of 
race characteristics 









RACES AND GROUPS OF PEOPLES 


14 


[§ 16 


16 . The White or Caucasian Race and its Three Groups. 

The so-called White or Caucasian Race embraces almost all of 
the historic nations. Its chief peoples fall into three groups—the 
Hamitic, the Semitic, and the Aryan or Indo-European. The mem¬ 
bers forming any one of these groups must not be looked upon 
as necessarily kindred in blood; the only certain bond uniting 
the peoples of each group is the bond of language. 

The ancient Egyptians were the most remarkable people of the 
Hamitic branch. In the gray dawn of history we discover them 
already settled in the valley of the Nile, and there erecting great 
monuments so faultless in construction as to render it certain 
that those who planned them had had long training in the art 
of building. 

The Semitic family includes among its chief peoples the ancient 
Babylonians and Assyrians, the Hebrews, the Phoenicians, and the 
Arabians. Most scholars regard Arabia as the original home of 
this family. It is interesting to note that the three great mono¬ 
theistic religions—the Hebrew, the Christian, and the Moham¬ 
medan— arose among peoples belonging to the Semitic family. 

The Aryan-speaking peoples form the most widely dispersed 
group of the White Race. They include the ancient Greeks and 
Romans, all the peoples of modern Europe (save the Basques,, 
the Finns and Lapps, the Hungarians, and the Ottoman Turks )> 
together with the Persians, the Hindus, and some other Asian 
peoples. 1 After what we may call the Semitic age it is the Aryan¬ 
speaking peoples that have borne the leading parts in the great 
drama of history. 


References. Ripley, W. Z., The Races of Europe. Keane, A. H., Ethnology 
and Man, Past and Present. Deniker, J., The Races of Man. Sergi, G., The 
Mediterranean Race. Ratzel, F., The History of Mankind, 2 vols. Keith, A., 
Ancient Types of Man. Brinton, I). G., Races and Peoples. Taylor, I., The 
Origin of the Aryans. Schrader, O., The Prehistoric Civilization of the 
Aryan Peoples. 

• 

1 The kinship in speech of all these peoples is most plainly shown by the similar 
form and meaning of certain words in their different languages, as, for example, the 
word father , which occurs with but little change in several of the Aryan tongues 
(Sanscrit, pitri ; Persian, padar ; Greek, TraTrjp■ Latin , pater-, German, Vatcr). 











































. 















- 







CHAPTER III 


ANCIENT EGYPT 
I. POLITICAL HISTORY 

17. Egypt and the Nile. The Egypt of history comprises the 
Delta of the Nile and the flood plains of its lower course. These 
rich lands were formed in past geologic ages from the silt brought 
down by the river in seasons of flood. The Delta was known to 
the ancients as Lower Egypt, while the valley proper, reaching 
from the head of the Delta to the First Cataract, a distance of 
six hundred miles, was called Upper Egypt. 

Through the same means by which Egypt was originally cre¬ 
ated is the land each year still renewed and fertilized; hence an 
old Greek writer, in 
happy phrase, called 
the country " the gift 
of the Nile.” Swollen 

by heavy tropical Fm. 9. Ploughing and Sowing 

rains and the melt- (From a papyrus) 

Ing snows of the 

mountains about its sources, the Nile - each year overflows its 
banks and on receding leaves on the fields a film of rich earth. 
In a few weeks after the sowing of the grain, the entire land, so 
recently a flooded plain, is a sea of verdure, which forms a striking 
contrast to the desert sands and barren hills that rim the valley. 

18. Climate and Products. The climate of Egypt is semi- 
tropical. The fruits of the tropics and the cereals of the temperate 
zone grow luxuriantly. From early times the land was the granary 
of the East. To it less favored countries, when stricken by famine, 
—a calamity so common in the East in regions dependent upon the 
rainfall,—looked for food, as did the families of Israel during 
drought and failure of crops in Palestine. 

15 






16 ANCIENT EGYPT [§ 19 

19. The Pharaoh and the Dynasties. The rulers of historic 
Egypt bore the royal title or common name of Pharaoh. The 
Pharaohs that reigned in the country up to the conquest of 
Alexander the Great (332 b.c.) are grouped in thirty-one dynas¬ 
ties. The history of these dynasties covers more than half of the 
entire period of authentic history. Almost three thousand years 

of this history had passed 
before the opening of the 
historic age in Greece and 
Italy. 

20. The Fourth Dy¬ 
nasty (about 2900-2750 
B.C.); the Pyramid 
Builders. The Pharaohs 
of the Fourth Dynasty, 
who reigned at Memphis, 
are called the pyramid 
builders, because they 
built the largest of the 
pyramids. Khufu, the 
Cheops of the Greeks, was 
the most noted of these 
rulers. He constructed the 
Great Pyramid, at Gizeh, 
— "the greatest mass of 
masonry that has ever 
been put together by mor¬ 
tal man.” 1 A recent fortunate discovery enables us now to look 
upon the face of this Khufu, one of the earliest and most renowned 
personages of the ancient world (Fig. 10). 

To some king of this same early family of pyramid builders is 
also ascribed, by some authorities, the wonderful sculpture of the 
gigantic human-headed Sphinx at the foot of the Great Pyramid — 
the largest statue in the world. 

1 This pyramid rises from a base covering 13 acres to a height of 450 feet. According 
to Herodotus, Cheops employed 100,000 men for twenty years in its erection. 



Fig. 10. Khufu, Builder of the Great 
Pyramid. (From Petrie’s Abydos, Part II) 

Though only a minute figure in ivory, it shows 
a character of immense energy and will; the 
face is an astonishing portrait to be expressed in 
a quarter of an inch. — Petrie 



§ 21 ] EIGHTEENTH AND NINETEENTH DYNASTIES 17 

These sepulchral monuments, for the pyramids were the tombs 
of the Pharaohs who constructed them, and the great Sphinx are 
the most venerable memorials of the early world of culture that 
have been preserved to us. 

21 . The Eighteenth and Nineteenth Dynasties (about 1580 - 
1205 B.C.). It is the deeds and architectural works of the 
Pharaohs of these two celebrated dynasties that have contributed 
largely to give Egypt her great name and place in history. The 
most famous ruler of the Nineteenth Dynasty was Rameses II, the 
Sesostris of the Greeks. The chief of Rameses’ wars were those 



Fig. 11. Brick-Making in Ancient Egypt. (From Thebes) 


against the Kheta, the Hittites of the Bible, who at this time were 
maintaining an extensive empire, embracing in the main the in¬ 
terior uplands of Asia Minor and northern Syria. 1 We find 
Rameses at last concluding with them a celebrated treaty of peace 
and alliance, in which the chief of the Hittites is formally recog¬ 
nized as in every respect the equal of the Pharaoh of Egypt. 
The meaning of this alliance was that the Pharaohs had met their 
peers in the princes of the Hittites, and that they could no longer 
hope to become masters of western Asia. 

It is the opinion of some scholars that this Rameses II was the 
oppressor of the children of Israel, the Pharaoh who "made their 
lives bitter with hard bondage, in mortar and in brick, and in all 
manner of service in the field,” and that what is known as the 
Exodus took place in the reign of his successor. 

1 We know very little about this people, save that for several centuries they divided 
with Egypt and Assyria the dominion of western Asia. They had a system of writing, 
, the key to which has not yet been discovered. 


























i8 


ANCIENT EGYPT 


[§ 22 

22 . The Last of the Native Pharaohs. Before the end of the 
Twenty-sixth Dynasty, about six hundred years before Christ, 
Egypt, her power having greatly declined, became tributary to 
Babylon, and a little later bowed beneath the Persian yoke. From 
about the middle of the fourth century b.c. to the present day no 
native prince has sat upon the throne of the Pharaohs. 

"The mission of Egypt among the nations was fulfilled ; it had 
lit the torch of civilization in ages inconceivably remote, and had 
passed it on to other peoples of the West.” 

II. RELIGION, ARTS, AND GENERAL CULTURE 

23 . The Egyptian System of Writing. Perhaps the greatesi: 
achievement of the ancient Egyptians was the working out of a 
system of writing. More than four thousand years before Christ 



Fig. i2 . Forms of Egyptian Writing 

The top line is hieroglyphic script; the bottom line is the same text in hieratic 


they had developed a very curious and complex system, which 
was partly picture writing and partly alphabetic. 1 

The chief writing material used by the ancient Egyptians was 
the noted papyrus paper, manufactured from a reed which grew 
in the marshes and along the water channels of the Nile. From 
the Greek names of this Egyptian plant, by bios and papyrus , 
come our words Bible and paper. 

1 Just as we have two forms of letters, one for printing and another for writing, so 
the Egyptians employed three forms of script: the hieroglyphic , in which the pictures 
and symbols were carefully drawn —a form generally employed in monumental inscrip¬ 
tions ; the hieratic , a simplified form of the hieroglyphic, adapted to writing, and forming 
the greater part of the papyrus manuscripts; and later a still simpler form developed 
from the hieratic, and called by the Greeks demotic , that is, the ordinary writing (from 
demos , "the people”). 









§24] 


THE ROSETTA STONE 


19 


24 . The Rosetta Stone and the Key to Egyptian Writing. 

The first key to the Egyptian writing was discovered by means 
of the Rosetta Stone, which was found by the French when they 
invaded Egypt in 1798. This precious relic, a heavy block of black 
basalt, is now in the British Museum. It holds an inscription in 
the Egyptian and the Greek language, which is written, in three 
different forms of script. The chief credit of deciphering the 
Egyptian script and of opening up the 
long-sealed secrets of the Egyptian 
monuments is commonly allotted to the 
French scholar Champollion. 

25 . The Egyptian Gods. Chief of 
the great Egyptian deities was the 
sun-god Fa (or Re), from whom the 
Pharaohs claimed descent. He was 
imagined as sailing across the heavens 
in a sacred bark on a celestial liver, 
and at night returning to the east through subterranean water 
passages — an adventurous and danger-beset voyage. 

The good Osiris, a beloved deity of many attributes and many 
fables, was, it seems, at first worshiped as the spirit or god of 
vegetation, but later he came to be conceived of as judge and ruler 
in the realms of the dead. Set, the Typhon of Greek writers, was 
the Satan of later Egyptian mythology. Besides the greater gods 
there was a multitude of lesser deities, each district and village 
having its local god or gods. 

26. Animal Worship. The Egyptians believed some animals 
to be incarnations of a god descended from heaven. Thus a god 
was thought to animate the body of some particular bull, which 
might be known from certain spots or markings. Upon the death 
of the sacred bull, or Apis, as he was called, the body was carefully 
embalmed and, amid funeral ceremonies of great expense and 
magnificence, laid away in a huge granite sarcophagus in the 
tomb of his predecessors. 

Not only were individual animals held sacred and worshiped but 
sometimes whole species, for example the cat, were regarded as 



Fig. 13. The Rosetta 
Stone 






20 


ANCIENT EGYPT 


[§ 27 




Fig. 14. Mummy of a Sacred Bull 
(From a photograph) 


sacred. To kill one of these animals was thought the greatest 
impiety. Many explanations have been given to account for the 
existence of such a debased form of worship among a people so 

cultured as were the ancient 
Egyptians. Probably the sa¬ 
cred animals in the later wor¬ 
ship simply represent an early 
crude stage of the Egyptian 
religion. 

27 . Ideas of the Future 
Life; the Mummy. Among 
no other people of antiquity 
did the life beyond the tomb 
seem so real and hold so large 
a place in the thoughts of the 
living as among the Egyptians. They thought that the welfare of 
the soul in the hereafter was dependent upon the preservation of 
the body; hence the anxious care with which they sought to 
protect the body against decay by embalming it. 

In the various processes of em¬ 
balming, use was made of oils, 
resins, bitumen, and various aro¬ 
matic gums. The bodies of the 
wealthy were preserved by being 
filled with costly aromatic and 
resinous substances, and swathed 
in bandages of linen. To a body 
thus treated is applied the term 
mummy. 

To this practice of the Egyp¬ 
tians of embalming their dead we 

owe it that we can look upon ~ n „ TT 

^ Fig. 15. Profile of Rameses II 

the actual faces of many of the (From a photograph of the mummy) 
ancient Pharaohs. Toward the 

close of the last century (in 1881) the mummies of nearly all 
the Pharaohs of the Eighteenth, Nineteenth, Twentieth, and 











§ 28 ] 


THE JUDGMENT OF THE DEAD 


21 


Twenty-first Dynasties were found in a secret rock chamber near 
Thebes. The faces of many are so remarkably preserved that, in 
the words of Maspero, "were their subjects to return to the earth 
today they could not fail to recognize their old sovereigns.” 

28. The Judgment of the Dead and the Negative Confession. 
Death was a great equalizer among the Egyptians; king and 
peasant alike must appear before the dread tribunal of Osiris, the 
judge of the underworld, and render an account of the deeds done 
in the body. Here the soul sought justification in such declarations 
as these, which form what is called the Negative Confession: "I 



Fig. i6 . The Judgment of the Dead. (From a papyrus) 

Showing the weighing of the heart of the deceased in the scales of truth 


have not blasphemed”; "I have not stolen”; "I have not slain 
anyone treacherously”; "I have not slandered anyone or made 
false accusation.” In other declarations of the soul we find a 
singularly close approach to Christian morality, as for instance 
in this: "I have given bread to the hungry and drink to him who 
was athirst; I have clothed the naked with garments.” 

The truth of what the soul thus asserted in its own behalf was 
tested by the balances of the gods. In one of the scales was 
placed the heart of the deceased ; in the other, a feather, the symbol 
of truth or righteousness. The soul stood by watching the weigh¬ 
ing. If the heart were found not light, the soul was welcomed to 
the companionship of the good Osiris. The unjustified were sent 
to a place of torment or were thrown to a monster to be devoured. 

























































22 


ANCIENT EGYPT 


[§ 29 

29 . Architecture, Sculpture, and Minor Arts. In the building 
art the ancient Egyptians, in some respects, have never been sur¬ 
passed. The Memphian pyramids built by the earlier, and the 
Theban temples raised by the later, Pharaohs have excited the 
astonishment and the admiration alike of all the successive genera¬ 
tions that have looked upon them. 

In the cutting and shaping of enormous blocks of the hardest 
stone, the Egyptians achieved results which modern stonecutters 
can scarcely equal. "It is doubtful,” says the historian Rawlinson, 
"whether the steam-sawing of the present day could be trusted! 
to produce in ten years from the quarries of Aberdeen a single 
obelisk such as those which the Pharaohs set up by dozens.” 

Egyptian sculpture was at its best in the earliest period; that* 
it became so imitative and the figures so conventional and rigid 
was due to the influence of religion. The artist, in the portrayal 
of the figures of the gods, was not allowed to change a single line 
of the sacred form. 

In many of the minor arts the Egyptians attained a surprisingly 
high degree of excellence. They were able in coloring glass to 
secure tints as brilliant and beautiful as any which modern art 
has been able to produce. In goldsmith’s work they showed 
wonderful skill. 

It should be noted here that it was especially in the domain 
of art that the influence of Egypt was exerted upon contemporary 
civilizations. Until the full development of Greek art, Egyptian 
art reigned over the world in somewhat the same way that Greek 
art has reigned since the Golden Age of Greece. Its’influence can 
be traced in the architecture, the sculpture, and the decorative art 
of all the peoples of the Mediterranean lands. 

30 . The Sciences: Astronomy, Geometry, and Medicine. 
The cloudless and biilliant skies of Egypt invited the inhabitants 
of the Nile valley to the study of the heavenly bodies. And 

another circumstance closely related to their very existence_ 

the inundation of the Nile, following the changing seasons-_ 

could not but have incited them to the watching and recording 
of the movements of the heavenly bodies. Their observations led 



Fig. 17. Ruins of the Great Hall of Columns at Karnak 

(From a photograph) 



















































§31] EGYPT’S CONTRIBUTION TO CIVILIZATION 23 


them to discover the length, very nearly, of the solar year, which 
they divided into twelve months of thirty days each, with a festival 
period of five days at the end of the year. This was the calendar 
that, with minor changes, Julius Caesar introduced into the Roman 
Empire, and which, slightly reformed by Pope Gregory XIII, in 
1582, has been the system employed by almost.all the civilized 
world up to the present day (sect. 290). 

The Greeks accounted for the early rise of the science of 
geometry among the Egyptians by the necessity they were under 
of reestablishing each year the boundaries of their fields—the 
inundation obliterating old landmarks and divisions. The science 
thus forced upon their attention was cultivated with zeal and 
success. The work of the Greek scholars in this field was based 
on that done by the Egyptians. 

The Egyptian physicians relied largely on magic, for every ail¬ 
ment was supposed to be caused by a demon that must be expelled 
by means of magical rites and incantations. But they also used 
drugs of various kinds; the ciphers or characters employed by 
modern apothecaries to designate grains and drams are believed 
to be of Egyptian invention. 

31. Egypt’s Contribution to Civilization. Egypt, we thus see, 
made valuable gifts to civilization. From the Nile came the germs 
of much found in the later cultures of the peoples of western Asia 
and of the Greeks and Romans, and through their agency in that 
of the modern world. "We are the heirs of the civilized past,” 
says Professor Sayce, " and a goodly portion of that civilized past 
was the creation of ancient Egypt.” 

References. Breasted, J. H., A History of Egypt , A Histoiy of the Ancient 
Egyptians, and Development of Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt. Mas- 
pero, G., The Dawn of Civilization , chaps, i-vi; The Struggle of the Nations , 
chaps, i-v; and Manual of Egyptian Archceology. Rawlinson, G., History of 
Ancient Egypt , 2 vols., and Story of Ancient Egypt. Baikie, J., The Story of 
the Pharaohs. Wiedemann, A., Religion of the Ancient Egyptians. Wilkinson, 
Sir J. G., Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians (should be used 
with caution — portions are antiquated). Erman, A., Life in Ancient Egypt. 
Budge, E. A. W., Egyptian Religion and Egyptian Ideas of the Future Life. 



CHAPTER IV 

BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 

I. THE EARLY CITY-KINGDOMS OF BABYLONIA AND THE 

OLD BABYLONIAN EMPIRE 

32. The Tigris and Euphrates Valley; the Upper and the 
Lower Country. As in the case of Egypt, so in that of the Tigris 
and Euphrates valley, 1 the physical features of the country exerted 
a great influence upon the history of its ancient peoples. Dif¬ 
ferences in geological structure divide this region into an upper 
and a lower district; and this twofold division in natural features 
is reflected, as we shall see, throughout its political history. The 
northern part of the'valley, the portion that comprised ancient 
Assyria, consists of undulating plains, broken in places by moun¬ 
tain ridges. This region nourished a hardy and warlike race, and 
became the seat of a great military empire. 

The southern part of the valley, the part known as Babylonia, 
is, like the Delta region of Egypt, an alluvial deposit. The making 

Note. The picture at the head of this page shows the Babil Mound, at Babylon, as 
it appeared in 1S11. 

1 The ancient Greeks gave to the land embraced by the Tigris and the Euphrates 
the name of Mesopotamia , which means literally "the land between or amidst the 
rivers.” The name is often loosely applied to the whole Tigris-Euphrates valley. 

24 












THE AGE OF CITY-KINGDOMS 


§ 33 ] 


2 5 


of new land by the rivers has gone on steadily during historic 
times. The ruins of one of the ancient seaports of the country 
(Eridu) lie over a hundred miles inland from the present head of 
the Persian Gulf. In ancient times much, of the land was pro¬ 
tected against the overflow of the rivers in seasons of freshet, 
and watered in seasons of drought, by a stupendous system oi 
dikes and canals, which at the present day, in a ruined and sand- 
choked condition, cover like a network the face of the country. 


Fig. i 8. Ancient Babylonian Canal 



The productions of Babylonia are very like those of the Nile 
valley. The luxuriant growth of grain upon these alluvial flats 
excited the wonder of the Greek travelers who visited the East. 
Herodotus will not tell the whole truth for fear his veracity may be 
doubted. This favored plain in a remote period of antiquity became 
the seat of an agricultural, industrial, and commercial population 
among which the arts of civilized life found a development which 
possibly was as old as that of Egypt, and which ran parallel with it. 

33. The Age of City-Kingdoms. When the light of history 
first falls upon the Mesopotamian lands, about 3000 b.c., it reveals 
the lower river plain filled with independent walled cities like those 




























26 


BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 


[§ 34 



which we find later in Palestine, Greece, and Italy. Each cit\ 
had its patron god, and was ruled by a prince bearing the title 

of king or lord. 

From the tablets of the old Babylonian temple archives (sect. 
36), patient scholars are slowly deciphering the wonderful story 
of these ancient cities. The political side of their history may, 
for our present purpose, be summarized by saying that for a 
period of two thousand years and more their records, so far as 
they have become known to us, are annals of wars waged for 

supremacy by one city 
and its gods against 
other cities and their 
gods. 

Of all the kings 
whose names have 
been recovered from 
the monuments we 
shall here mention 
only one—Sargon I 
(about 2800 b.c.), a 

Semitic king of Akkad, whose reign forms a great landmark in 
early Babylonian annals. He built up a powerful state in Baby¬ 
lonia and carried his arms to " the land of the setting sun” (Syria). 

34 . The Rise of Babylon; the Old Babylonian Empire. 
Among these cities of the plain was the great Babylon, whose name 
is a household word throughout the world today. Gradually 
rising into prominence, this city gave to the whole country the 
name by which it is best known — Babylonia. 

For more than fifteen hundred years Babylon was the political 
and commercial center of what is known as the Old Babylonian 
Empire, a state of varying fortunes, of changing dynasties, and 
of shifting frontiers. Meanwhile a new Semitic power had been 
slowly developing in the north. This was the Assyrian Empire, 
the later center and capital of which was the great city of Nineveh. 
Finally Babylonia was conquered by an Assyrian king and passed 
under Assyrian control (728 b.c.). 


Fig. 19. Impression of a Seal of Sargon I 
(Date about 2800 b.c.) 

Must be ranked among the masterpieces of oriental 
engraving. — M aspero 
















§ 35 ] REMAINS OF BABYLONIAN STRUCTURES 


27 


35 . Remains of the Babylonian Cities and Public Buildings. 

The Babylonian plains are dotted with enormous mounds, gen¬ 
erally inclosed by vast ramparts of earth. These heaps are the 
remains of the great mud-walled cities,, the palaces, and shrines 
of the ancient Babylonians. About the middle of the nineteenth 
century some mounds of the upper country were excavated, and 
the world was astonished to see rising as from the tomb the palaces 
of the great Assyrian kings. This was the beginning of excavations 
and discoveries in the Mesopotamian lands which during the past 
half century have recovered the history of long-forgotten empires, 
reconstructed the history of the Orient, and given us a new 
beginning for universal history. 

36 . Cuneiform Writing. From the earliest period known to 
us, the Babylonians were in possession of a system of writing. To 


[W<H eTIEIIMfff sW-tET H 



Fig. 20. Cuneiform Writing 

Translation : " Five thousand mighty cedars I spread for its roof ” 


this system the term cuneiform (from cuneus, a "wedge”) has 
been given on account of its wedge-shaped characters. The signs 
assumed this peculiar form from being impressed upon soft clay 
tablets with an angular writing instrument. This system of writ¬ 
ing had been developed out of an earlier system of picture writing. 
The Babylonians never developed the system beyond the syllabic 
stage (sect. 10). They used four or five hundred syllable signs. 1 

This mode of writing was in use among the peoples of western 
Asia from before 3000 b.c. down to the first century of our era. 
Thus for three thousand years it was just such an important factor 
in the earlier civilizations of the ancient world as the Phoenician 
alphabet in its various forms has been during the last three 

1 The Persians at a much later time borrowed the system and developed it into a 
purely alphabetic one. Their alphabet consisted of thirty-six characters. 


28 


BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 


[§ 37 


thousand years in the civilizations of all the peoples of culture,, 
save those of eastern Asia, who use systems developed from the 
Chinese (sect. 77). 

The writing material of the Babylonians was usually clay 
tablets of various sizes. The tablets were carefully preserved in 
great public archives, which sometimes formed an adjunct of the 
remple of some specially revered deity. 

37 . The Religion. The Babylonians, like the Egyptians, were 
worshipers of many gods. The god-group embraced powerful 
nature gods, local city deities, and a multitude of lesser gods. 

The most prominent feature from first to last of the popular 
religion was a belief in spirits, particularly in wicked spirits, and 
the practice of magic rites and incantations to avert the evil 
influence of these demons. A second most important feature of 
the religion was what is known as astrology, or the foretelling of 
events by the aspect of the planets and stars. The Chaldean 
astrologers were famed throughout the ancient world. 

Alongside these low beliefs and superstitious practices there 
existed, however, higher and purer elements. This is best illus¬ 
trated by the so-called penitential psalms, which breathe a spirit 
like that of the penitential psalms of the Old Testament. 

38 . Legislation: the Code of Hammurabi. In 1901-1902 
French excavators at Susa, in the ancient Elam, discovered a block 
of stone upon which was inscribed the code of laws set up by 
Hammurabi, king of Babylon, more than two thousand years b.c. 
This is the oldest sytem of laws known to us. It is, in the main, 
merely a collection of earlier laws and ancient customs. 

The code casts a strong side light upon the Babylonian life of 
the period when it was compiled, and thus constitutes one of the 
most valuable monuments spared to us from the old Semitic world. 
It defined the rights and duties of husband and wife, master and 
slave, of merchants, gardeners, tenants, shepherds—of all the 
classes which made up the population of the Babylonian Empire. 
As in the case of the later Hebrew code, the principle of retaliation 
determined the penalty for injury done another; it was an eye 
for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. 



0mS, 

































§39] 


BABYLONIAN SCIENCES 


29 


For more than two thousand years after its compilation this 
code of laws was in force in the Assyrian and Babylonian empires, 
and even after this lapse of time it was used as a textbook in the 
schools of the Mesopotamian lands. Probably no other code save 
the Mosaic or the Justinian (sect. 389) has exerted a greater 
influence upon human society. 

89 . Sciences: Astronomy, the Calendar, and Mathematics. 

In astronomy the Babylonians made greater advance than the 
Egyptians. Their knowledge of the heavens came about from 
their interest as astrologers in the stars. They divided the zodiac 
into twelve signs and named its constellations, a memorial of their 
astronomical attainments which will remain forever inscribed upon 
the great circle of the heavens ; they foretold eclipses of the sun 
and moon; they invented the sundial; they divided the year into 
twelve months, the day and night into hours, and the hours into 
minutes, and devised a week of seven days. 1 

In the mathematical sciences, also, the Babylonians made con¬ 
siderable advance. The duodecimal system in numbers was their 
invention, and it is from them that the system has come to us. 
They devised measures of length, weight, and capacity. It was 
from them that all the peoples of antiquity derived their systems 
of weight and measure. Aside from letters, these are perhaps the 
most indispensable agents in the life of a people after they have 
risen above the lowest levels of barbarism. 

II. THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE 

40 . Introduction. The story of Assyria is in the main a story 
of the Assyrian kings. And it is a story of ruthless war, which 
made the Assyrian kings the scourge of antiquity. To relate this 
story with any measure of detail would involve endless repetition 
of the royal records of pillaging raids and punitive campaigns in 
all the countries of western Asia. We shall therefore merely men¬ 
tion two or three of the great kings of the later empire whose 
names live among the renowned personages of the ancient world. 

l This week of seven days was a subdivision of the moon-month, based on the phases 
of the moon, namely, new moon, first quarter, full moon, and last quarter. 


30 


BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 


[§ 41 

41 . Sargon II (722-705 b.c.). Sargon II was a great conqueror. 
In 722 b.c. he captured Samaria and carried away the most in¬ 
fluential classes of the Ten Tribes of Israel into captivity (sect. 56). 
The greater portion of the captives were scattered among the towns 
of Media and Mesopotamia, and probably became, for the most 
part, merged with the population of those regions. 

42 . Sennacherib ( 705-681 b.c.). To Sennacherib, the son of 
Sargon, we must accord the first place of renown among the 
Assyrian kings. His name, connected as it is with the history of 
Jerusalem and with the wonderful discoveries among the ruined 
palaces of Nineveh, has become as familiar as that of Nebuchad¬ 
nezzar in the story of Babylon. His reign was filled with military 
expeditions and marked by great building enterprises at Nineveh. 
Respecting the decoration of this capital, one of his inscriptions 
says: "I raised again all the edifices of Nineveh, my royal city; 
I reconstructed all its old streets, and widened those that were 
too narrow. I made the whole town a city shining like the sun.” 

43 . The Fall of Nineveh (606 b.c.). A ruler named by the 
Greek writers Saracus was the last of the long line of Assyrian 
kings. For nearly or quite six centuries the Ninevite kings had 
now lorded it over the East. There was scarcely a state in all 
western Asia that during this time had not, in the language of the 
royal inscriptions, "borne the heavy yoke of their lordship”; 
scarcely a people that had not suffered their cruel punishments or 
tasted the bitterness of enforced exile. 

But now swift misfortunes were bearing down from every 
quarter upon the oppressor. Egypt revolted and tore Syria away 
from the empire. In the southern lowlands the Babylonians also 
rose in revolt, while from the mountain defiles on the east issued 
the armies of the recent-grown empire of the Aryan Medes and 
laid close siege to Nineveh. The city was finally taken and sacked, 
and dominion passed away forever from the proud capital 
(606 b.c.). Two hundred years later, when Xenophon with his 
Ten Thousand Greeks, in his memorable retreat (sect. 162), passed 
the spot, the once great city was a crumbling mass of ruins and 
its name had been forgotten. 


§ 44 ] ASSYRIAN EXCAVATIONS AND DISCOVERIES 


3i 


44 . Assyrian Excavations and Discoveries. In 1843-1844 
M. Botta, the French consul resident at Mosul on the Tigris, 
excavated a great palace-mound some distance from the site of 
old Nineveh, and astonished the world with most wonderful 
specimens of Assyrian art from the palace of Sargon II. The 
sculptured and lettered slabs were removed to the museum of 



Fig. 21. Excavating an Assyrian Palace. (After Layai ' d ) 


the Louvre, in Paris. A little later Austen Henry Layard, an 
English archaeologist, disentombed the palace of Sennacherib 
and those of other kings at Nineveh and Calah (the earliest capital 
of the Assyrian kingdom), and enriched the British Museum with 
the treasures of his search. 

In the ruins of one of the palaces at Nineveh was discovered 
what is known as the Royal Library, the largest and most im¬ 
portant library of the old Semitic world, from which over twenty 
thousand tablets were taken. The greater part of the tablets were 
copies of older Babylonian works; for the literature of the As¬ 
syrians, as well as their arts and sciences, was borrowed almost 
in a body from the Babylonians. 










32 BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA [§ 45 

45 . Cruelty of the Assyrians. The Assyrians have been called 
the " Romans of Asia.” They were a proud, warlike, and cruel 
race. The Assyrian kings seem to have surpassed all others in 
the cruelty which characterizes the warfare of the whole ancient 
Orient. The sculptured marbles of their palaces exhibit the 
hideously cruel tortures inflicted by them upon prisoners (Fig. 22). 
A royal inscription which is a fair specimen of many others runs 
as follows: "The nobles, as many as had revolted, I flayed ; . . . 
Three thousand of their captives I burned with fire. ... I cut 



Fig. 22. Assyrians Flaying Prisoners Alive. (From a bas-relief) 


off the hands [and] feet of some; I cut off the noses, the ears 
[and] the fingers of others; the eyes of the numerous soldiers 
I put out. . . . Their young men [and] their maidens I burned 
as a holocaust.” The significant thing here is that the king exults 
in having done these things and thinks to immortalize himself by 
portraying them upon imperishable stone. 

46 . Services rendered Civilization by Assyria. Assyria did 
a work like that done by Rome at a later time. Just as Rome 
welded all the peoples of the Mediterranean world into a great 
empire, and then throughout her vast domains scattered the seeds 
of the civilization which she had borrowed from vanquished Greece, 
so did Assyria weld into a great empire the innumerable petty war¬ 
ring states and tribes of western Asia, and then throughout her 
extended dominions spread the civilization which she had in the 
main borrowed from the conquered Babylonians. 


























33 


§ 17 ] BABYLON BECOMES A GREAT POWER 

# 

III. THE CHALDEAN OR NEW BABYLONIAN EMPIRE 

( 625-538 b.c.) 

47 . Babylon becomes again a Great Power. Nabopolassar 
( 625-605 b.c.) was the founder of what is known as the Chaldean 
cr New Babylonian Empire. At first a vassal of the Assyrian king, 
when troubles began to thicken about the Assyrian court, he 
revolted and became independent. With the break-up of the 
Assyrian Empire, the Babylonian kingdom received large acces¬ 
sions of territory. For a short time thereafter Babylon held a 
great place in history. 

48 . Nebuchadnezzar II (605-561 B.c.). Nabopolassar was fol¬ 
lowed by his son Nebuchadnezzar, whose renown filled the ancient 
world. One important event of his reign was the siege and capture 
of Jerusalem. The city was pillaged and its walls were thrown 
down. The temple was stripped of its sacred vessels of silver and 
gold, which were carried away to Babylon, and the temple itself 
was given to the flames; a part of the people were also carried 
away into the "Great Captivity’ 7 (586 b.c.). 

Nebuchadnezzar rivaled even the Pharaohs in the execution of 
immense works requiring vast expenditures of human labor. 
Among his works were the Great Palace in the royal quarter of 
Eabylon, the celebrated Hanging Gardens, 1 and the City Walls. 
'I'he gardens and the walls were reckoned among the seven wonders 
of the ancient world. 

Especially zealous was Nebuchadnezzar in the erection and 
restoration of the shrines of the gods. "Like dear life,” runs 
one of the inscriptions, "love I the building of their lodging 
places.” He dwells with fondness on all the details of the work, 
and tells how he ornamented the panelings of the shrines with 
precious stones, roofed them with huge beams of cedar overlaid 

1 The Hanging Gardens were constructed by Nebuchadnezzar to please his wife 
Amytis, who, tired of the monotony of the Babylonian plains, longed for the mountain 
scenery of her native Media. The gardens were probably built somewhat in the form 
of the tower temples, the successive stages being covered with earth and beautified 
with plants and trees, so as to simulate the appearance of a mountain rising in cultivated 
terraces toward the sky. 


34 


BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 


[§ 49 

with gold and silver, and decorated the gates with plates of bronze, 
making the sacred abodes as "bright as the stars of heaven.” 

49. The Fall of Babylon (538 B.C.). The glory of the New 
Babylonian Empire passed away with Nebuchadnezzar. Among 
the mountains and on the uplands to the east of the Tigris- 
Euphrates valley there had been growing up an Aryan kingdom. 
At the time which we have now reached, this state, through the 
destruction of the Assyrian Empire and the absorption of its prov¬ 
inces, had grown into a great imperial power—the Medo-Persian. 
At the head of this new empire was Cyrus, a strong, energetic, and 
ambitious sovereign (sect. 66). Coming into collision with the 
Babylonian king Nabonidus he defeated his army in the open 
field, and the gates of the strongly fortified capital Babylon were 
without further resistance thrown open to the Persians. 

With the fall of Babylon the scepter of dominion, borne so long 
by Semitic princes, was given into the hands of the Aryan peoples, 
who were destined from this time forward to shape the main course 
of events and control the affairs of civilization. 1 

References. Maspero, G., The Dawn of Civilization, chaps, vii-ix; The 
■Struggle of the Nations , chaps, i, vi; The Passing of the Actions, chaps, i-v ; 
and Life in Ancient Egypt and Assyria, chaps, xi-xx. King, L. W., History of 
Akkad and Sumir and A History of Babylon. Rawlinson, G., The Five Great 
Monarchies, 3 vols. Rogers, R. \\ History of Babylonia and Assyria, 2 vols. 
Hommel, F., The Civilization of the East. Goodspeed, G. S ., A Hi stogy of the 
Babylonians and Assyrians. Ragozin, Z. A., The Story of Assyria. Layard, 
A. H., Nineveh and its Remains. Peters, J. P., A Ippur, 2 vols. Jastrow, N., 
The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria and The Civilization of Babylonia and 
Assyria. Sa\ ce, A. H., Social Life among the Assyrians and Babylonians. 
Koldew e\, R., Jhe Excavations at Babylon. The Code of Hammurabi (in 
■either the C. H. W . Johns or the R. F. Harper translation). ' 

■ For the temporary revival of Semitic power throughout the Orient by the Arabs 
see Chapter XL. 


CHAPTER V 


THE HEBREWS 

50 . The Patriarchal Age. The history of the Hebrews, as nar¬ 
rated in their sacred books, begins with the departure of the 
patriarch Abraham out of "Ur of the Chaldees.” The stories of 
Abraham and his nephew Lot, of Isaac and his sons Jacob and 
Esau, of the sojourn and the oppression of the descendants of 
Jacob in Egypt, of the Exodus under the leadership of the great 
lawgiver Moses, of the conquest of Canaan by his successor Joshua 
—all these wonderful stories are told in the old Hebrew Scriptures 
with a charm and simplicity that have made them the familiar 
possession of childhood. 

51 . The Age of the "Judges” (ending about 1050 B.C.). The 
intrusion into Canaan of the Israelite tribes was followed by a long 
period of petty wars, brigandage, and anarchy. During this time 
there arose a line of national heroes, such as Gideon, Jephthah, 
and Samson, whose deeds of valor and daring, and the timely 
deliverance they wrought for the tribes of Israel from their foes, 
caused their names to be handed down with grateful remembrance 
to following ages. These popular leaders are called "Judges” by 
the Bible writers. 

52 . Founding of the Hebrew Monarchy (about 1050 B.c. )- 
During the time of the "Judges” there was, as the history of the 
period shows, no effective union among the tribes of Israel. But 
the common danger to which they were exposed from enemies,— 
especially from the warlike Philistines,—and the example of the 
nations about them, led the people finally to begin to think of the 
advantages of a more perfect union and of a strong central govern¬ 
ment. The hitherto loose confederation, accordingly, was changed 
into a kingdom, and Saul of the tribe of Benjamin was made king 
of the new monarchy. 


35 


36 


THE HEBREWS 


[§ 5.3 

53. The Reign of David (about 1025-993 B.C.). hpon the 
death of Saul, David, son of Jesse, of the tribe of Judah, assumed 
the scepter. He built up a real empire and waged wars against the 
troublesome tribes of Moab, Ammon, and Edom. 

David was a poet as well as a warrior. His lament over Saul 
and Jonathan 1 is regarded as one of the noblest specimens of 
elegiac poetry that has come down from Hebrew antiquity. Such 
was his fame that the authorship of a large number of hymns 
written in a later age was ascribed to him. 

54. The Reign of Solomon (about 993-953 B. C.). David was 
followed by his son Solomon. The son did not possess the father’s 
talent for military affairs, but was a liberal patron of art, com¬ 
merce, and learning. He erected with the utmost magnificence of 
adornment the temple at Jerusalem planned by his father David. 
Thenceforth this temple was the center of the Hebrew worship and 
of the national life. As the reputed author of famous proverbs, 
Solomon has lived in tradition as the wisest king of the East. He 
maintained a court of oriental magnificence. When the queen 
of Sheba, made curious by reports of his glory, came from 
South Arabia to visit him, she exclaimed, "The half was not 
told me.” 

55. The Division of the Kingdom (about 953 B.C.). The reign 
of Solomon was brilliant, yet disastrous in the end to the Hebrew 
monarchy. In order to carry on his vast undertakings he had 
laid oppressive taxes upon his people. When Rehoboam, his 
son, succeeded to his father’s place, the people entreated him to 
lighten the taxes. He refused. Straightway all the tribes, save 
Judah and Benjamin, rose in revolt, and succeeded in setting up 
to the north of Jerusalem a rival kingdom, with Jeroboam as its 
first king. This northern state, of which Samaria afterwards 
became ihe capital, was known as the Kingdom of Israel; the 
southern, of which Jerusalem remained the capital, was called 
the Kingdom of Judah. 

1 hus was torn in twain the empire of David and Solomon, 
United, the tribes might have offered successful resistance to the 

1 2 Sam. i, 17-27. 


THE KINGDOM OF ISRAEL 


§ 56] 


37 


encroachments of the powerful and ambitious monarchs about 
them. But now the land became an easy prey to the spoiler. 

56. The Kingdom of Israel (953?-722 b.c.). The kingdom 
of the Ten Tribes maintained its existence for about two hundred 
years. The little state was at last overwhelmed by the Assyrian 
power. This happened 722 b.c., when Samaria, as already nar¬ 
rated, was captured by Sargon II, king of Nineveh, and the flower 
of the people were carried away into captivity. The gaps thus 
made in the population of Samaria were filled with other subjects 
or captives of the Assyrian king. The descendants of these, 
mingled with the Israelites that were still left in the country, 
formed the Samaritans of the time of Christ. 

57. The Kingdom of Judah (953P-586 B.c.). This little king¬ 
dom maintained an independent existence for over three centuries, 
but upon the extension of the power of Babylon to the west, Jeru¬ 
salem was forced to acknowledge the overlordship of the Baby¬ 
lonian kings. The kingdom at last shared the fate of its northern 
rival. Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, in revenge for an upris¬ 
ing of the Jews, besieged and captured Jerusalem and carried away 
a large part of the people into captivity at Babylon. This event 
virtually ended the separate political life of the Hebrew r race 
(586 b. c.). Henceforth Judea constituted simply a province of the 
empires which successively held sway over the regions of western 
Asia, with, however, just one short period of national life under 
the Maccabees, during a part of the two centuries immediately 
preceding the birth of Christ. 

58. Hebrew Literature. The literature of the Hebrews is a 
religious one; for literature with them was in the main merely 
a means of inculcating religious truth or awakening devotional 
feeling. This unique literature is contained in sacred books known 
as the Old or Hebrew Testament. In these ancient writings his¬ 
tories, poems, prophecies, and personal narratives blend in a 
wonderful mosaic, which pictures with vivid and grand effect the 
migrations, the deliverances, the calamities,—all the events and 
religious experiences making up the checkered life of the people 
of Israel. 


38 


THE HEBREWS 


[§ 59 

Out of the Old arose the New Testament, which we should think 
of as a part of Hebrew literature; for although written, in the 
Greek language and long after the close of the political life of the 
Jewish nation, nevertheless it is essentially Hebrew in thought and 
doctrine, and the supplement and crown of the Hebrew Scriptures. 

Besides the Sacred Scriptures, called collectively, by way of pre¬ 
eminence, the Bible (the Book), it remains to mention especially 
the Apocrypha, embracing a number of books that were composed 
after the decline of the prophetic spirit, and which show traces of 
the influence of Persian and Greek thought. 

Neither must we fail to mention the Talmud, a collection of 
Hebrew customs and traditions, with the comments thereupon of 
the rabbis, a work held by most Jews next in sacredness to the 

Holy Book; the writings of Philo, an illustrious Alexandrian 

% 

philosopher (born about 25 b.c.) ; and the Antiquities oj the Jews 
and the Jewish War by the historian Josephus (born a.d. 37 ). 

59. Hebrew Religion and Morality. The ancient Hebrews 
made little or no contribution to science. They produced no new 
order of architecture. In sculpture they did nothing; their religion 
forbade their making "graven images.” Their mission was to 
make known the idea of God as a being holy and just and com¬ 
passionate and loving,— as the Universal Father whose care is 
over not one people alone but over all peoples and all races,— 
and to teach men that what he requires of them is that they shall 
do justice and practice righteousness. 

This lofty conception of God was the best element in the 
bequest which the ancient Hebrews made to the younger Aryan 
world of Europe, and is largely what entitles them to the pre¬ 
eminent place they hold in the history of humanity. 

References. Sayce, A. H., Early Israel and the Surrounding Nations. 
Kent, C. F., A History of the Hebrew People , 2 vols. Renan, E., Histoiy of the 
People of Israel , 4 vols. Cornill, C. II., History of the People of Israel. Hil- 
I RECHT, II. \ ., Recent Research in Bible lands and Explorations in Bible 
Lands in the Nineteenth Centuiy (consult tables of contents). Montefiore, 
C. G., Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion as Illustrated by the Reli¬ 
gion of the Ancient Hebrews. Ball, C. J., Light from the East. Budde, IC., Religion 
of Israel to the Exile. Cheyne, T. K ., Jewish Religious Life after the Exile. 


CHAPTER VI 

THE PHCENICIANS 

60. The Land. Ancient Phoenicia embraced a little strip of 
broken seacoast lying between the Mediterranean Sea and the 
ranges of Mount Lebanon. One of the most noted productions 
of the country was the fine fir timber cut from the forests that 
crowned the lofty ranges of the Lebanon Mountains. The "cedars 
of Lebanon” hold a prominent place both 
in the history and in the poetry of the 
East. 

Another celebrated product of the coun¬ 
try was the Tyrian purple, which was 
obtained from several varieties of the 
Murex, a species of shellfish secured at 
first along the Phoenician coast, but later 
sought in distant waters, especially in the 
Grecian seas. 

61. Tyre and Sidon. The various 
Phoenician cities never coalesced to form 
a true nation. They constituted merely a sort of league or con¬ 
federacy, the petty states of which generally acknowledged the 
leadership of Tyre or of Sidon, the two chief cities. From about 
the eleventh to the fourth century b.c. Tyre controlled, almost 
without dispute on the part of Sidon, the affairs of Phoenicia. 
During this time the maritime enterprise and energy of her 
merchants spread throughout the Mediterranean world the fame 
of the little island capital. 

62. Phoenician Commerce. It was natural that the people of 
the Phoenician coast should have been led to a seafaring life. The 
lofty mountains that back the little strip of shore seemed to shut 
them out from a career of conquest and to prohibit an extension 

39 



Fig. 23. Species of the 
Murex. (After Maspero) 

The mollusks which secrete 
the famous purple dye of the 
ancient Tyrians 



40 


THE PHOENICIANS 


[§ 63 

of their land domains. At the same time, the Mediterranean in 
front invited them to maritime enterprise, while the forests of 
Lebanon in the rear offered timber in abundance for their ships. 

One of the earliest centers of activity of the Phoenician traders 
was the /Egean Sea; but towards the close of the tenth or the 
ninth century b.c. the jealousy of the Greek city-states, now 
growing into maritime power, closed the eastern Mediterranean 
against them. They then pushed out into the western Mediter¬ 
ranean. One chief object of their quest here was tin, which was 

in great demand on 
account of its use in 
the manufacture of 
bronze. The tin was 
at first supplied by 
the mines opened in 
the Iberian (Spanish) 
peninsula. Later the 
bold Phoenician sailors 
passed the Pillars of 
Hercules, braved the 
dangers of the At¬ 
lantic, and brought back from those stormy seas the product of 
the tin-producing districts 1 of western Europe. 

63. Phoenician Colonies. Along the different routes pursued 
by their ships, and upon the coasts visited by them, the Phoenicians 
established naval stations and trading posts. Settlements were 
planted in Cyprus, in Rhodes, and on other islands of the ^gean 
Sea, and probably even in Greece itself. The shores of the islands 
of Sicily and Sardinia were fringed with Phoenician colonies ; while 
the coast of North Africa was dotted with such great cities as Utica, 
Hippo, and Carthage. Colonies were even planted beyond the 
Pillars of Hercules, upon the Atlantic seaboard. The Phoenician 
settlement of Gades, upon the western coast of Spain, is still 
preserved in the modern Cadiz. 

i Probably one or all of the following regions: northwest Spain, southwest Britain 
(Cornwall), and the neighboring Scilly Islands — possibly the ancient Cassiterides. 



Fig. 24. Phceniciax Galley. (From an 
Assyrian sculpture) 






















§64] ARTS DISSEMINATED BY THE PHOENICIANS 41 


G4. Arts spread abroad by the Phoenicians; the Alphabet. 
Commerce has been called the path-breaker of civilization. Cer¬ 
tainly it was such in antiquity when the Phoenician traders carried 
in their ships to every Mediterranean land the wares of the work¬ 
shops of Tyre and Sidon, and along with these material products 
carried also the seeds of culture from the ancient lands of Egypt 
and Babylonia. "Egypt and Assyria,” as has been tersely said, 
"were the birthplace of material civilization; the Phoenicians 
were its missionaries.” 

Most fruitful of all the arts which the Phoenicians introduced 
among the peoples with whom they traded was the art of alpha¬ 
betic writing. As early at least as 900 b.c. they were in possession 
of an alphabet. Now wherever the Phoenician traders went they 
carried this alphabet as " one of their exports.” It was through them 
that the Greeks received it; the Greeks passed it on. to the Romans, 
and the Romans gave it to the German folk. In this way our 
alphabet came to us from the ancient East. It would be diffi¬ 
cult to exaggerate the importance of this gift of the alphabet 
to the Aryan-speaking peoples of Europe. Without it their 
civilization could never have become so rich and progressive 
as it did . 1 

Among the other elements of culture which the Phoenicians 
carried to the peoples of the Mediterranean lands, the most im¬ 
portant, after alphabetical writing, were systems of weights and 
measures. These are indispensable agents of civilization, and hold 
some such relation to the development of trade and commerce as 
letters hold to the development of the intellectual life. 

References. Rawlinson, G., History of Phoenicia and The Story of Phoenicia. 
Sayce, A. H., The Ancient Empires of the East , chaps, iii, iv. The Bible , 
Ezek. xxvii (a striking portrayal by the prophet of the commerce, the trade 
relations, and the wealth of Tyre). The Voyage of Hanno (a record of a 
Phoenician exploring expedition down the western coast of Africa). A trans¬ 
lation of this celebrated record will be found in Rawlinson’s History of 
Phoenicia , pp. 389-392. * 

1 All systems of writing now in use, except the Chinese (sect. 77) and those derived 
from it, are from the Phoenician script. 


CHAPTER VII 


THE PERSIAN EMPIRE 

(558-330.B.C.) 

65. Kinship of the Medes and Persians. It was in remote 
times, probably before 1500 b.c., that some Aryan tribes, separat¬ 
ing themselves from kindred clans, the ancestors of the Indian 
Aryans, with whom they had lived for a time as a single com¬ 
munity, sought new abodes on the plateau of western Iran. The 
immigrants that settled in the south, near the Persian Gulf, be¬ 
came known as Persians; while those that took possession of the 
mountain regions of the northwest were called Medes. The names 
of the two peoples were always very closely associated, as in the 
Bible phrase, "The law of the Medes and Persians, which 
altereth not.” 

66 . Cyrus the Great (558-529 b.c.) founds a Great World 
Empire. The Medes were at first the leading people. Their 
leadership, however, was of short duration. A certain' Cyrus 
overthrew their power, and assumed the headship of both Medes 
and Persians. Through his energy and soldierly genius Cyrus 
soon built up an empire more extended than any over which the 
scepter had yet been swayed by oriental monarch, or indeed, so 
far as we know, by any ruler before his time. 

After the conquest of Media and the acquisition of the prov¬ 
inces formerly ruled by the Median princes, Cyrus rounded out 
his empire by the conquest of Lydia and Babylonia. Lydia was a 
country in the western part of Asia Minor. It embraced two rich 
river valleys,—the plains of the Hermus and the Cayster,—which, 
from the mountains inland, slope gently to the island-dotted 
iEgean. The coast region did not at first belong to Lydia; it 
was held by the Greeks, who had fringed it with cities. The capital 
of the country was Sardis. 


42 


§67] 


REIGN OF DARIUS I 


43 


The Lydian throne was at this time held by Croesus ( 560 - 
546 b.c.), the last and most renowned of his race. The tribute 
Croesus collected from the Greek cities which he had subjugated 
and the revenue he derived from his gold mines rendered him the 
richest monarch of his times, so that his name has passed into the 
proverb "rich as Croesus.” 

It was this king who, alarmed at the growth of the Persian 
power, threw down the gage of battle to Cyrus. Cyrus defeated 
the Lydians in. the open field, and after a short siege captured 
Sardis. Lydia now became a part of the Persian Empire. This 
war between Croesus and Cyrus derives special importance from 
the fact that it brought the Persian Empire into contact with the 
Greek cities of Asia, and thus led on directly to a memorable 
struggle between Greece and Persia,—one of the chief matters of 
ancient history,— the incidents of which we shall narrate in a 
later chapter. 

The fall of Lydia was followed by that of Babylon, as has been 
already related as part of the story of the Chaldean Empire. 
Cyrus had now rounded out his dominions. 

67. Reign of Darius I (521-484 b.c.). Cyrus was followed by 
his son Cambyses, who through conquest added Egypt to the 
growing empire. A short troublous period followed the death of 
Cambyses and then Darius I, the greatest of the Persian kings, 
took the throne. The new king built splendid structures at 
Persepolis; reformed the government, making such wise and 
lasting changes that he has been called "the second founder of the 
Persian Empire ”; established post roads; and upon the great 
Behistun Rock, a lofty, smooth-faced cliff on the western frontier 
of Persia, caused to be inscribed a record of all he had done. 

And now the Great King, lord of western Asia and of Egypt, 
conceived and entered upon the execution of vast designs of con¬ 
quest, the far-reaching effects of which were destined to live long 
after he had passed away. He determined to extend the frontiers 
of his empire into India and Europe alike. 

At one blow Darius brought northwestern India under his author¬ 
ity, and thus by a single effort pushed out the eastern boundary 


44 


THE PERSIAN EMPIRE 


[§68 

of his empire so that it included one of the richest countries 
of Asia. Several campaigns in Europe followed. These brought 
Darius in direct contact with the Greeks, of whom we shall soon 
hear much. How his armaments and those of his son and suc¬ 
cessor, Xerxes I, fared at the hands of this freedom-loving people, 
who now appear for the first time as prominent actors in large 
world affairs, will be told when we come to narrate the history of 



Fig. 25. Insurgent Captives brought before Darius 
(From the Behistun Rock) 


the Greek city-states. We need now simply note the .result— 
the wreck of the Persian plans of conquest and the opening of the 
great days of Greece. 

68 . End of the Persian Empire. The power and supremacy 
of the Persian monarchy passed away with the reign of Xerxes. 
In the >ear 334 b.c. Alexander the Great, king of Macedonia, led 
a small army of Greeks and Macedonians across the Hellespont 
intent upon the conquest of Asia. I he story of the establishment 
bv him of the short-lived IMacedonian monarchy upon the ruins 
of the Persian Empire properly belongs to Grecian history, and 
will be related at a later stage of our narrative. 

































omana 


MGander 

^etus 


Carchei 


Ecbatana 


plateau 


-ijp Damascus 


Jerusali 


0 pasargad® 


L AM 

'ansha; 


larmana 


Persep 1 


0 PERSIAN EMPIRE 
Tn its greatest extent. 
ABOUT 500 B. O. 

Persian Empire 1-1 _^ 

Greek Colonies in As La Minor L__J 


Authoritit a \ 

H.JCiepert, Allas Anicius 


Scale' of Miles, 


WORKS. BUFFALO, N.Y 


W. Sleglin, Atlas Antiquus 

































































































§ 69 ] 


THE GOVERNMENT 


45 


69. The Government. Before the reign of Darius I the Persian 
Empire consisted of a great number of subject states, which were 
allowed to retain their own kings and manage their own affairs, 
merely paying tribute and homage and furnishing war contingents 
to the Great King. 

Darius converted this primitive type of government into what 
is known as the satrapal, a form represented until recently by the 
Turkish Empire. The main part of the lands embraced by the 
monarchy was divided into twenty or more provinces, over each 
of which was placed 
a governor, called a 
satrap, appointed by 
the king. These offi¬ 
cials held their posi¬ 
tion at the pleasure 
of the sovereign. 

Each province con¬ 
tributed to the in¬ 
come of the king a 
stated revenue. 

There were pro¬ 
visions in the system 
by which the king 
might be apprised of 
the disloyalty of his satraps.' Thus the whole dominion was firmly 
cemented together, and the facility with which almost-sovereign 
states—which was the real character of the different parts of the 
empire under the old system—could plan and execute revolt, was 
removed. 

70. Religion and Morality; Zoroastrianism. The literature 
of the ancient Persians was mostly religious. Their sacred book is 
called the Zend-Avesta. The religious system of the Persians, as 
taught in the Zend-Avesta, is known as Zoroastrianism, from 
Zoroaster, its supposed founder. This great reformer and teacher 
is now generally believed to have lived and taught about iooo b.c., 
though some scholars place him several centuries later. 



Fig. 26. Ancient Persian Fire-Altars 
(From Perrot, History of Persian Art) 


46 


THE PERSIAN EMPIRE 


[§ 70 

Zoroastrianism was a system of belief known as dualism. 
There was a good spirit, Ahura Mazda, whose truest symbol or 
manifestation was fire. Upon high mountain tops the eternal 
flame on fire-altars was kept burning from generation to genera¬ 
tion. Because of their veneration for fire the ancient Persians are 
often called fire-worshipers. 

Opposed to the good spirit Ahura, or Ormazd, was an evil spirit 
Ahriman, who was constantly striving to destroy the good creations 
of Ahura by creating all evil things—drought, pestilence, baneful 
animals, weeds and thorns in the world without, and evil in the 
heart of man within. From all eternity these two powers had 
been contending for the mastery; in the present neither had the 
decided advantage, but in the near future Ahura, it was believed, 
would triumph over Ahriman, and evil be forever destroyed. 

The duty of man was to aid Ahura by working with him against 
the evil-loving Ahriman. He must labor to eradicate every evil 
and vice from his own heart, to reclaim the earth from barren¬ 
ness, and to kill all noxious animals—snakes, lizards and such 
like creeping things—which Ahriman had created. Above all, 
man must be truthful, because Ahura, on whose side he battles, is 
the god of sincerity and truth. To lie was to be a follower of 
Ahriman, the god of deceit and lies. "The most disgraceful thing 
in the world,” affirms Herodotus in his account of the Persians, 
"they think, is to tell a lie.” In his report of the Persian system 
of education he says : "The boys are taught to ride, to draw the 
bow, and to speak the truth.” I was not wicked, nor a liar , is the 
substance and purport of many a record of the ancient kings. 
1 he Persian rulers, shaming in this all other nations ancient and 
modern, kept sacredly their pledged word ; only once were they 
ever even charged with having broken a treaty with a foreign power. 

References. Maspero, G., The Passing of the Empires , chap. vi. Rawlin- 
SON, G., Five Great Monarchies , vol. iii, pp. 84-539. Sayce, A. H., The Ancient 
Empires of the East , chaps, iv, v. Jackson, A. V. W., Zoroaster , the Prophet of 
Ancient Iran. IIall, H. R. H., Ancient History of the A T ear East , chap, xii, 
PP- 55 1— 579 - Benjamin, S. G. W., Persia , chaps, vii-xi. See Herodotus, V, 
5 2 ~54, for the Royal Road from Susa to Sardis, and Harper, R. F., Assyrian 
and Babylonian Literature , pp. 174-187, for the Behistun Inscription of Darius. 


CHAPTER VIII 

THE EAST ASIAN PEOPLES 

71. The East Asian Circle of Culture. While in Egypt and 
western Asia there were slowly developing the Egyptian, the 
Babylonian-Assyrian, the Syrian, and the Persian cultures of which 
we have given some account in the preceding chapters, there were 
developing at the other end of Asia, in India and China, civili¬ 
zations which throughout this early period were in the main un¬ 
influenced by the cultures of the West. Before following further 
the development of civilization in the Western lands, we must 
cast a glance upon these civilizations of the Far East . 1 

I. INDIA 

72. The Aryan Invasion. At the time of the great Indo- 
European dispersion some Aryan bands, journeying from the 
northwest, settled first the plains of the Indus and then occupied 
the valley of the Ganges. They reached the banks of the latter 
river as early probably as 1500 b.c. These fair-skinned invaders 
found the land occupied by a dark-skinned, non-Aryan race, whom 
they either subjugated and reduced to serfdom, or drove out of 
the great river valleys into the mountains and the half-desert 
plains of the peninsula . 2 

73. The Development of the System of Castes. The conflict 
and mingling of races in northern India caused the population 
to become divided into four social grades or hereditary classes, 

1 Besides the Hindus and the Chinese, the Japanese are a third important people 
belonging to the East Asian sphere of culture, but as they did not emerge from the 
obscurity of prehistoric times until about the beginning of the fifth century of ou. era, 
when writing was introduced into Japan from the continent, their true history falls out¬ 
side the period covered by the present chapter. 

2 The unsubdued tribes of southern India, known as Dravidians, retained their native 
speech. Over 54,000,000 of the present population of India are non-Aryan in language. 

47 


48 


THE EAST ASIAN PEOPLES 


[§ 74 

based on color. These were (i) the nobles or warriors; ( 2 ) the 
Brahmans or priests ; 1 ( 3 ) the peasants and traders; and ( 4 ) the 
Sudras. The last were of non-Aryan descent. Below these several 
grades were the Pariahs or outcasts, the lowest and most despised 
of the native races. The marked characteristics of this graded 
society were that intermarriage between' the classes was forbidden, 
and that the members of different classes must not eat together 
nor come into personal contact. 

The development of this system, which is known as the system 
of castes, is one of the most important facts in the history of India. 
The system, however, has undergone great modification in the 
lapse of ages, and is now less rigid than in earlier times. At the 
present day it rests largely on an industrial basis, the members of 
every trade and occupation forming a distinct caste. The number 
of castes is now about two thousand. 

74. The Vedas; the Religion. The most important of the 
sacred books of the Hindus are called the Vedas. They are written 
in the Sanscrit language, which is the oldest form of Aryan speech 
preserved to us. 

The early religion of the Indian Aryans was a worship of the 
powers of nature. As time passed, this nature worship developed 
into a form of religion known as Brahmanism. It is so named 
from Brahma, which is the Hindu name for the Supreme Being. 
Below Brahma there are many gods. 

A chief doctrine of Brahmanism is that of rebirth. According 
to this teaching the good man is at death reborn into some, higher 
caste or better state, while the evil man is reborn into a lower 
caste, or perhaps his soul enters some unclean animal, or is im¬ 
prisoned in a shrub or tree. This doctrine of rebirth is known 
as the transmigration of souls. 

75. Buddhism. In the fifth century before our era a great 
teacher and reformer named Gautama (about 557-477 b.c.), but 
better known as Buddha, that is, "the Enlightened,” arose in 
India. He was born a prince, but legend represents him as being 
so touched by the universal misery of mankind that he voluntarily 

1 At a later period the Brahmans arrogated to themselves the highest rank. 


BUDDHISM 


49 


§ 76] 

abandoned the luxury of his home and spent his life in seeking 
out and making known to men a new and better way of salvation. 
His creed was very simple. What he taught the people was that 
they should seek salvation not through self-torture and the observ¬ 
ance of religious rites and ceremonies but through honesty and 
purity of heart, through charity and tenderness and compassion 
toward all creatures that have life. 

Buddhism gradually gained ascendancy over Brahmanism; but 
after some centuries the Brahmans regained their power, and by 
the eighth century after Christ the faith of Buddha had died out 
or had been crowded out of almost every part of India. 

But Buddhism, like Christianity, has a profound missionary 
spirit, and during the very period when India was being lost the 
missionaries of the reformed creed were spreading the teachings 
of their master among the peoples of all the countries of eastern 
Asia, so that today Buddhism is the religion of almost one third 
of the human race. Buddha has probably nearly as many followers 

as both Christ and Mohammed together. 

» 

II. CHINA 

76. General Remarks. China was the cradle of a very old 
civilization, older perhaps than that of any other lands save Egypt 
and Babylonia; yet China has not until recently exercised any di¬ 
rect influence upon the general current of history. All through the 
later ancient and mediaeval times the country lay, vague and mys¬ 
terious, in the haze of the world’s horizon. During the Middle 
Ages the land was known to Europe under the name of Cathay. 

The government of ancient China was a parental monarchy. 
The emperor was the father of his people. But though an absolute 
prince, he dared not rule tyrannically; he must rule justly and 
in accordance with the ancient customs. 

77. Chinese Writing. The art of writing was known among 
the Chinese as early as 2000 b . c . The system employed is cu¬ 
riously cumbrous. In the absence of an alphabet each word of the 
language is represented upon the written page by means of a 


THE EAST ASIAN PEOPLES 


50 


L§ 78 


symbol, or combination of symbols; this, of course, requires that 
there be as many symbols or characters as there are words in the 
language. The number sanctioned by good use is about twenty- 
five thousand; but counting obsolete signs, the number amounts 
to over fifty thousand. A knowledge of five or six thousand 
characters, however, enables one to read and write without diffi¬ 
culty. The nature of the signs shows conclusively that the Chinese 
system of writing, like that of all others with which we are ac¬ 
quainted, was at first pure picture writing. Time and use have 
worn the pictorial symbols to their present form. 

Printing from blocks was practiced in China as early as the 
sixth century of our era, and printing from movable types as early 
as the tenth or eleventh century,—that is to say, about four 
hundred years before the same art was invented in Europe. 

78. The Teacher Confucius. The great teacher of the Chinese 
was Confucius ( 551-478 b.c.). He was not a prophet or revealer ; 
he laid no claims to a supernatural knowledge of God or of the 
hereafter; he said nothing of an Infinite Spirit, and but little of 
a future life. His cardinal precepts were obedience to parents and 
superiors and reverence for the ancients and imitation of their 
virtues. He gave the Chinese the Golden Rule, stated negatively : 
"What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others.” 
The influence of Confucius has been greater than that of any other 
teacher excepting Christ and perhaps Buddha. 

79. Chinese Literature. The most highly prized portion of 
Chinese literature is embraced in what is known as the Five 
Classics and the Four Books, called collectively the Nine Classics. 
A considerable part of the material of the Five Classics was col¬ 
lected and edited by Confucius. The Four Books, though not writ¬ 
ten by Confucius, yet bear the impress of his mind and thought, 
just as the Gospels teach the mind of Christ. The cardinal virtue 
inculcated by all the sacred writings is filial piety. The second 
great moral requirement is conformity to ancient custom. 

It would be difficult to exaggerate the influence which the Nine 
Classics have had upon the Chinese nation. For more than two 
thousand years these writings have been the Chinese Bible. But 


§ 80 ] 


CHINESE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM 


51 

their influence has not been wholly good. The Chinese in strictly 
obeying the injunction to walk in the old ways, to conform to the 
customs of the ancients, have failed to mark out new footpaths 
for themselves; hence, probably, one cause of the unprogressive 
character of Chinese civilization. 

80. Education and Civil-Service Competitive Examinations. 
China has a very ancient educational system. The land was filled 
with schools, academies, and colleges more than a thousand years 
before our era. Until recently a knowledge of the sacred books 
was the sole passport to civil office and public employment. All 
candidates for places in the government had to pass a series of 
competitive examinations in the Nine Classics. At the opening 
of the present century there were between two and three million 
persons studying for these literary tests. 1 

81. The Chinese outside the Western Circle of Ancient 
Culture. Though constituting so important a factor in the East 
Asian circle of culture, the Chinese during ancient times, as we 
have already intimated, did not contribute any historically im¬ 
portant elements to the civilization of the West Asian and Mediter¬ 
ranean lands. What contributions this great people will make to 
the general civilization of the future, the future alone will disclose. 

References. For India : Ragozin, Z. A., The Story of Vedic India. Hunter, 
W. W., A Brief Histoiy of the Indian Peoples, chaps, i-vi. Dutt, R. C., The 
Civilization of India, chaps, i-v. Rhys Davids, Buddhist India and Buddhism, 
its History and Literature. Hopkins, E. W., The Religions of India. 

For China: Williams, S. W., A Histoiy of China, chap, i (this work com¬ 
prises the historical chapters of the author’s The Middle Kingdom). Gowen, 
H. H., An Outline History of China, pt. i, earlier chapters. Legge, J., The 
Religions of China. Giles, H. A., The Civilization of China, chaps, i-iii. De 
Groot, J. J. M., The Religion of the Chinese and Religion in China. Martin, 
W. A. R., The Lore of Cathay. Geil, W. E., The Great Wall of China 2 (valuable 
for its illustrations; the literary qualities of the book cannot be commended). 

1 In the year 1905 the Dowager Empress by edict ordered that in future examina¬ 
tions the sciences of the West should be substituted for the ancient classics. 

•2 The Great Wall is one of the most remarkable works of man. This immense ram¬ 
part, which was built as a barrier against the incursions of nomads, extends for about 
1500 miles along the northern frontier of the country. Its construction was begun in the 
third century B.c. 


s 


DIVISION II. GREECE 

CHAPTER IX 
THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE 

82. Hellas. The ancient people whom we call Greeks called 
themselves Hellenes and their land Hellas. But this term Hellas 
as used by the ancient Greeks embraced much more than modern 
Greece. "Wherever, were Hellenes there was Hellas.” Thus 
the name included not only Greece proper and the islands of 
the adjoining seas but also the Hellenic cities in Asia Minor, 
in southern Italy, and in Sicily, besides many other Greek settle¬ 
ments scattered up and down the Mediterranean and along the 
shores of the Hellespont and the Euxine. Yet Greece proper was 
the real homeland of the Hellenes and the actual center of Greek 
life and culture. 

83. Divisions of Greece. Long arms of the sea divide the 
Greek peninsula into three parts, called Northern, Central, and 
Southern Greece. The southern portion, joined to the mainland 
by the Isthmus of Corinth, was called by the ancients the Pelopon¬ 
nesus, that is, the Island of Pelops, from the fabled founder there 
of a mythic line of kings. 

Northern Greece included the ancient districts of Thessaly and 
Epirus. Thessaly consists mainly of a large and beautiful valley, 
walled in on all sides by rugged mountains. The district of Epirus 
stretched along the Ionian Sea on the west. In the deep recesses 
of its forests of oak was situated a renowned oracle of Zeus. 

Central Greece was divided into eleven districts, among which 
-were Phocis, Bceotia, and Attica. In Phocis was the city of Delphi, 
famous for its oracle and temple; in Bceotia the city of Thebes; 
and in Attica was the brilliant Athens. The Attic land, as we 
shall learn, was the central point of Greek history. 

52 







§ 83 ] 


DIVISIONS OF GREECE 



53 

The chief districts of Southern Greece were Corinthia, Arcadia, 
Argolis, Laconia, and Elis. 

The main part of Corinthia formed the isthmus uniting the 
Peloponnesus to Central Greece. Its chief city was Corinth, the 
gateway of the peninsula. 

Arcadia, sometimes called "the Switzerland of the Pelopon¬ 
nesus,” formed the heart of the peninsula. This region consists 


Fig. 27. The Plain of Olympia. (From Boetticher, Olympia ) 

The valley of the Alpheus in Elis, where were held the celebrated Olympic games 

of broken uplands shut in by irregular mountain walls. The in¬ 
habitants of this district, because thus isolated, were, in the 
general intellectual movement of the Greek race, left far behind 
the dwellers in the more open and favored portions of Greece. 
It is the rustic, simple life of the Arcadians that has given the 
term Arcadian its meaning of pastoral simplicity. 

Argolis formed a tongue of land jutting out into the ^Egean. 
This region is noted as the home of an early prehistoric culture, 
and holds today the remains of cities—Mycena? and Tiryns— 
the kings of which built great palaces, possessed vast treasures in 
gold and silver, and held wide sway centuries before Athens had 
made for herself a name and place in history. 












54 


THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE 


[§S4 

Laconia, or Lacedaemon, embraced the southeastern part of the 
Peloponnesus. This district was ruled by the city of Sparta, the 
great rival of Athens. 

Elis, a district on the western side of the Peloponnesus, is 
chiefly noted as the consecrated land which held Olympia, the 
great assembling place of the Greeks for the celebration of the 
most famous of their festivals,— the so-called Olympian games. 

84. Mountains. The Cambunian Mountains form a lofty wall 
along a considerable reach of the northern frontier of Greece. 
Branching off at right angles to these mountains is the Pindus 
range, which runs south into Central Greece. 

On the northern border of Thessaly is Mount Olympus, the 
most celebrated mountain of the peninsula. The Greeks thought 
it the highest mountain in the world (its height is about 9700 
feet), and believed that its cloudy summit was the abode of 
the gods. 

South of Olympus, close by the sea, are Ossa and Pelion, cele¬ 
brated in fable as the mountains which the giants, in their war 
against the gods, piled one upon another in order to scale 
the heavens. 

Parnassus and Helicon, in Central Greece,— beautiful moun¬ 
tains clad with trees and vines and filled with fountains,—were 
believed to be haunts of the Muses. Near Athens are Hymettus, 
praised for its honey, and Pentelicus, renowned for its marbles. 

The Peloponnesus is rugged with mountains that radiate in all 
directions from the central country of Arcadia. 

85. The Rivers and Lakes of the Land. Greece has no rivers 
large enough to be of service to commerce. Most of the streams 
are scarcely more than winter torrents. Among the most impor¬ 
tant streams are the Alpheus in Elis, on the banks of which the 
Olympian games were celebrated, and the Eurotas, which threads 
the central valley of Laconia. The lakes of Greece are in the 
main scarcely more than stagnant pools, the backwater of spring 
freshets. 

86. Islands about Greece. Very much of the history of Greece 
is intertwined with the islands that lie about the mainland. On 



Longitude 


Greenwich 


talcedon 


Maronea 


Abdera 


Ampbipolisl 


Mesambria 


,Fella 


fgind'us 


Thasos 


''Umonic 

Gulf 


>;Therma 

ll ./"^Kira 

CH ALC1DIC E 


‘Prlapus 


Saniothracia 


PlERIUS 

Mr.' 


OlyiKliu; 

Potidaea 

TJiermaic 


f Lafnpsacus 
L^ydos J 


Imbros 


IT. ATHOS 


’MT.*f 

OLYXPU8 


Mendc 


unu 


Slgejm) 
Tenedos | 
Ne indfla 

Laris i 


Scione 




Lemnos 


HE L-L ESPONT/ICA 

MT. IDA / 

o Ant an drug j 

£ Adramyttium 

. M Y S I A 
SHe'rgclea / 

\, \y 

V^^Pergamus 


[T.OSSA 


Corcyt 

Corcvra 


Dodona 


lb— J Larissa 

L thWsaly\p 

v£\ ( V__ Fherse 0 . 

• J Cynoscephalw 1 ^—. Iolcoi 

S \ > o I (fa 

“ < (Pharaalim U 

r / / ° t hrvsI mt. 


sa p Assos 


.Mt.Pelion 


Sybota 


Toron 

Taxus 


Lesbos (M^tlleiJ' 

jeollvn 

COLONIES 


Nicopolia 
Actiurn Prom. 
Anactoriu 


rtem.im.um Pr. 


ilracian ’ 

T 


^pLamla 


'Opalopia 


LSerlnthus 


<$Cyme 

bocsea 


Leucas/I 


}/**, P H&C IS \ 
*Sa„ 1 Orchomeitua/ 
° ^ oDelph^p<2 


5£-~0£Chalci i 
Aulliovi—-laFietrii 
,T 1 A \ j)elium 

TTeoele* ) < 

Eleuaia oC e * y* < 
ATTIC A1lMa r 


Sardis 


iC-RIS 


Clazomen® 
>nTeos J 


Chios 


:rythr» 


Cephilienia' 


raF &lu 

/ACH 

o f 

■ontlumJ 


bftthian 


Colophpn \ Ca y* te 


Lebedi 


Ephjesus 


i Peneus R 


i° Athens' 


IONIAN COLONIES 

Samos/^—wfu-, 


aW - '* i-'Wf/ 
!T/\ 

■RCADIAfcp^V 
HerajA 0 XjoWk 
. M a n t i n e a L, • 
Tegea 

.^HxegafoEA* 


Andros 


>|E LTS -1 
j 

Gulf of \ 1 
LepreunV?. 
Cyparissia ) 

Itbome o 

r °l 

(Messene 

) MESS 
ttoroue 
PylosJR °( 
Sphacteria I.V 

Methone<^_ \ 


A hEgifla \s 

jurus 'i 

) Sunium 


urium 


12aria>^7 - 


Tenos 


ulis^ 

Gyaros 

i> Syro8| 


Miletus', 

CO \ 


iezon 

lion 

'Hydrea 


cono8 


1 3 ythnos 


Patmos 


Jlelos 


Strophades 


Serfyho? ^ 

__ > 
Siphno 8 *\ 

C ^°L^C> 


i LACONIA 

olSparta 

c^v^Lacedsei 

mycl* ( 


ali earn as bus 


Naxos 


Helos] 


mo.rgos 


Gytfdumo, 


Jrtelos 


LaconiaW 
, Gulf 


Malta Prom, 


Tienarum Prt/m 


Cytliera 


Liudus 


dorian COLONIES A Of 


GENERAL REFERENCE 31 AT 
OF 

ANCIENT GREECE 


Cavpathus 


Cydonia 


Scale of Mfles 


Authority: —- 

"W. Sieglin, Atlas Antiquus. 


Cnossus 


Gorfyna 


































































































































§87] 


INFLUENCE OF THE LAND 


55 


the east, in the ^Egean Sea, are the Cyclades, so called because 
they form an irregular circle round the sacred island of Delos, 
where was a very celebrated shrine of Apollo. Between the 
Cyclades and Asia Minor lie the Sporades, which islands, as the 
name implies, are sown irregularly over that part of the /Egean. 

Just off the coast of Attica is a large island called by the 
ancients Euboea. Close to the Asian shores are the large islands 
of Lemnos, Lesbos, Chios, Samos, and Rhodes. In the Mediter¬ 
ranean, midway between Greece and Egypt, is the large island of 
Crete, noted in legend for its Labyrinth and its legislator Minos. 
To the west of Greece lie the Ionian Islands, the largest of which 
was called Corcyra, now Corfu. 

87. Influence of the Land upon the People. The physical 
geography of a country has much to do with molding the char¬ 
acter and shaping the history of its people. Mountains, isolating 
neighboring communities, foster the spirit of local patriotism; 
the sea, inviting abroad and rendering intercourse with distant 
countries easy, awakens the spirit of adventure and develops 
• commercial enterprise. 

Now Greece is at once a mountainous and a maritime country. 
Mountain walls fence it off into a great number of isolated dis¬ 
tricts, and this is probably one reason why the Greeks formed so 
many small independent states, and never could be brought to 
feel or to act as a single nation. 1 

The Greek peninsula is, moreover, by deep arms and bays of 
the sea, converted into what is in effect an archipelago. Hence 
its people were early tempted to a seafaring life,— tempted to 
follow what Homer calls the "wet paths” of Ocean, to see whither 
they might lead. Intercourse with the old civilizations of the 
Orient, which Greece faces, stirred the naturally quick and ver¬ 
satile Greek intellect to early and vigorous thought. The islands 
strewn with seeming carelessness through the ^Egean Sea were 
"stepping-stones,” which invited intercourse between the settlers 

1 But we must be careful not to exaggerate the influence of geography upon Greek 
;history. For the root of feelings and sentiments which were far more potent than geo¬ 
graphical conditions in keeping the Greek cities apart, see sect. 98. 


56 THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE [§ 8 S 

of Greece and the inhabitants of the delightful coast countries of 
Asia Minor, and thus blended the life and history of the opposite 
shores. 

How much the sea did in developing enterprise and intelligence 
in the cities of the maritime districts of Greece is shown by the 
contrast which the advancing culture of these regions-presented 
to the lagging civilization of the peoples of the interior districts; 
as, for instance, those of Arcadia. 

88. The Hellenes. The historic inhabitants of the land we 
have described were called by the Romans Greeks; but, as we 
have already learned, they called themselves Hellenes, from their 
fabled ancestor Hellen. They were divided into four tribes,— 
the Achaeans, the Ionians, the Dorians, and the HLolians. These 
several tribes, united by bonds of language and religion, always 
regarded themselves as members of a single family. All non- 
Hellenic peoples they called Barbarians} When the mists of 
prehistoric times first rise from Greece, about the beginning of 
the eighth century b.c., we discover the several Hellenic families 
in possession of Greece proper, of the islands of the iEgean, and 
of the western coast of Asia Minor. Respecting their prehistoric 
migrations and settlements we have little or no certain knowledge. 
In the next chapter we shall see how they pictured to themselves 
the past of the Higean lands. 

References. Curtius, E., vol. i, pp. 9~46. 1 2 Grote, G. (ten-volume ed.), 
vol. ii, pp. 141-163. Abbott, E., vol. i, chap. i. Holm, A., vol. i, chap. ii. 
Bury, J. B., Histoiy of Greece , pp. 1-5. Tozf.r, H. F., Classical Geography 
(Primer). Richardson, R. B., Vacation Days in Greece (Dr. Richardson was 
for many years Director of the American School of Archaeology at Athens ; 
his delightful sketches of excursions to interesting historical sites will give a 
much better idea of the physical features of Greece than all the formal descrip¬ 
tions of the geographers). Manatt, J. I., JEgean Days (has pictures of the 
life and scenes of the isles of the /Egean by one " smitten with the love 
of Greece ”). 

1 At first this term meant scarcely more than "unintelligible folk”; but later it came 
to express aversion and contempt. 

2 We cite the standard extended histories of Greece and of Rome by giving merely 
the author’s name with volume and chapter or page. 


CHAPTER X 


GREEK LEGENDS; THE AEGEAN CIVILIZATION 1 

89. Character and Value of the Legends. The Greeks of 
historic times possessed a great store of wonderful legends and 
tales of the foretime in Greece. Though many of these stories 
were doubtless in large part a pure creation of the Greek imagi¬ 
nation, still for two reasons the historical student must make him¬ 
self familiar with them. First, because the historic Greeks believed 
them to be true, and hence were greatly influenced by them. What 
has been said of the war against Troy, namely, “If not itself a 
fact, the Trojan War became the cause of innumerable facts,” 
is true of the whole body of Greek legends. These tales were 
recited by the historian, dramatized by the tragic poet, cut in 
marble by the sculptor, and depicted by the painter on the walls 
of portico and temple. They thus constituted a very vital part 
of the education of every Greek. 

Second, a knowledge of these legends is of value to the student 
of Greek history because recent discoveries in the zEgean lands 
prove that at least some of them contain elements of truth, that 
they are memories, though confused memories, of actual events. 

Therefore, as a prelude to the story we have to tell we shall 
in the present chapter repeat some of these tales, selecting chiefly 
those that contain references to a wonderful civilization which is 
represented as having existed in the zEgean lands in prehistoric 
times, but which long before authentic Greek history opens had 
vanished, leaving behind barely more than a dim memory. 

lThe prehistoric period in Greece was formerly called the Mycencecin Age, for the rea¬ 
son that Mycenae, in Argolis, was believed to have been the center of the brilliant Bronze 
Age culture which characterized the second millennium b. c. in the Aegean lands. Discov¬ 
eries in Crete, however, show that island to have been the radiating point of this civili¬ 
zation, and the /Egean islands and coast lands its chief arena, hence the name sEgcan 
Civilization by which it is now generally designated. The creators and bearers of this 
civilization were a non-Greek race. 


57 


58 GREEK LEGENDS ; AEGEAN CIVILIZATION [§ 90 

90. Oriental Immigrants. The legends of the Greeks represent 
the early growth of civilization among them as having been pro¬ 
moted by the settlement in Greece of oriental immigrants, who 
brought with them the arts and culture of the East. Thus from 
Egypt, legend affirms, came Cecrops, bringing with him the arts, 
learning, and priestly wisdom of the Nile valley. He is represented 
as the builder of Cecropia, which became afterwards the citadel 
of the illustrious city of Athens. From Phoenicia Cadmus brought 
the letters of the alphabet, and founded the city of Thebes. 

The nucleus of fact in these legends is probably this,— that the 
European Greeks received certain of the elements of their culture 
from the East. Without doubt they got from thence letters, a 
gift of incomparable value, and hints in art, besides suggestions 
and facts in philosophy and science. 

91. The Heroes; Heracles. The Greeks believed that their 
ancestors were a race of heroes of divine or semi-divine lineage. 
Every tribe, district, city, and village even, preserved traditions 
of its heroes, whose wonderful exploits were commemorated in 
song and story. 

Heracles was the greatest of the national heroes of the Greeks. 
He is represented as performing twelve superhuman labors, and 
as being at last translated from a blazing pyre to a place among, 
the immortal gods. Heracles was originally a sun-god. Trans¬ 
ferred from the heavens to the earth he became the personification 
or embodiment of the moral qualities of heroism, endurance, and 
self-sacrifice in the service of others. 

92. Minos the Lawgiver and Sea-King of Crete. Many of 
the Greek legends cluster about the island of Crete.* These have 
much to do with a great ruler named Minos, who is represented 
as a lawgiver of divine wisdom, the founder of the first great 
maritime state in the ^Egean, and the suppressor of piracy in 
those waters. 

This legend preserves the memory of a Cretan kingdom which 
was great and powerful in the early part of the second millennium 
b.c. The center of this early zEgean culture, which in some 
respects was not inferior to the contemporary civilizations of 


Fig. 28. The Vaphio Cups and their Scrolls 

These famous cups, masterpieces of the art of the prehistoric Tigean civilization, were 
found in a tomb at Vaphio, in Laconia, in 1889. They were doubtless of Cretan origin 
and represent a brilliant culture that centuries before the opening of classical Greek 
history had vanished, leaving behind only a vague memory in tradition 



BMW 


!MrtMlliiiW1lllllllM'llllJII! l ' | ll||i 


i. 




























































































































§93] 


THE ARGONAUTIC EXPEDITION 


59 


Egypt and Babylonia, was Cnossus. Here have been unearthed the 
remains of a great, many-chambered palace and other memorials 
of a wonderful civilization which was in its bloom a thousand 
years and more before the beginnings of recorded Greek history. 

93. The Argonautic Expedition. Besides the labors and ex¬ 
ploits of single heroes, Greek legends tell of various memorable 
and arduous enter¬ 
prises which were 
conducted by bands 
of heroes. . Among 
these undertakings 
were the Argonautic 
Expedition and the 
Siege of Troy. 

The tale of the 
Argonauts is told 
with many a varia¬ 
tion in the legends of 
the Greeks. Jason, a 
prince of Thessaly, 
with fifty companion 
heroes, among whom 
were Heracles, The¬ 
seus, and Orpheus,— 
the last a musician 
of superhuman skill, the music of whose lyre moved trees and 
stones,—set sail in "a fifty-oared galley” called the Argo (hence 
the name Argonauts , given to the heroes), in search of a "golden 
fleece” which was fabled to be nailed to a tree and watched by a 
dragon in a grove on the eastern shore of the Euxine an inhospi¬ 
table region of unknown terrors. The expedition was successful, 
and after many wonderful adventures the heroes returned in 
triumph with the sacred relic. 

In its primitive form this tale was doubtless an oriental nature 
myth; but in the shape given it by the Greek story-tellers it 
may, divested of its many poetical embellishments, be taken as 



Fig. 29. Theater and " Dancing-Place ” (?) 
Excavated at Cnossus by Dr. Evans 

Also did the glorious lame god devise a dancing-place 
like unto that which once in wide Knosos Daidalos 
wrought for Ariadne of the lovely tresses. — Iliad 
(tr. Lang and others), xviii, 590-592 
















6 o GREEK LEGENDS ; AEGEAN CIVILIZATION [§ 94 


symbolizing the explorations and adventures of the prehistoric 
Greeks or their predecessors in the North zEgean and the Euxine.. 

94. The Trojan War (legendary date, 1194-1184 B.C.). The 
Trojan War was an event about which gathered a great circle of 
tales and poems, all full of an undying interest and fascination. 

Ilios, or Troy, was a strong-walled city which had grown up in 
Asia Minor just south of the Hellespont. The traditions tell how 
Paris, son of Priam, king of Troy, visited the Spartan king. 
Menelaus, and ungenerously requited his hospitality by secretly 
bearing away to Troy his wife Helen, famous for her rare beauty „ 

All the heroes of Greece flew to arms to avenge the wrong. 
A host of a hundred thousand warriors was speedily gathered.. 
Agamemnon, brother of Menelaus and king of Mycenae, "wide- 
wayed and rich in gold,” was chosen leader of the expedition.. 
Under him were the "lion-hearted Achilles” of Thessaly, the 
"crafty Odysseus,” king of Ithaca, the aged Nestor, and many 
more—the most valiant heroes of all Hellas. Twelve hundred 
galleys bore the gathered clans across the zEgean, from Aulis to« 
the Trojan shores. For ten years the Greeks and their allies 
held in close siege the city of Priam. The place was at last 
taken through a device of the artful Odysseus, and was sacked 
and burned to the ground. 

There is probably a nucleus of fact in this, the most elaborate 
and interesting of the Grecian legends. We may believe it to be 
the dim recollection of a prehistoric conflict between the Greeks 
and the natives of Asia Minor, arising from the attempt of the 
former to secure a foothold upon the coast. That there really 
was in prehistoric times in the Troad a city which was the strong¬ 
hold of a rich and powerful royal race has been placed beyond 
doubt by the excavations and discoveries of Dr. Schliemann 
and others. 1 

1 We may reasonably believe that the basis of the power and riches of these rulers 
was the control which their strategic position at the entrance of the water passage to the 
Propontis and the Euxine gave them over the trade of those regions. Troy in prehistoric 
times seems to have held the same relation to this northern trade that Byzantium, 
located at the northern entrance to the Bosphorus, held throughout the classical Greek 
period, and which Constantinople holds today. 


§95] 


REFERENCES 


61 


95. The Home-coming of the Greek Chieftains. After the 
fall of Troy the Greek chieftains and princes returned home. The 
legends represent the gods as withdrawing their protection from 
the hitherto favored heroes, because they had not spared the altars 
of the Trojans. Consequently many of them were driven in end¬ 
less wanderings over sea and land. Homer’s Odyssey portrays 
the sufferings of the " much-enduring Odysseus,’ 7 impelled by 
divine wrath to long journeyings through strange seas. 

In some cases, according to the tradition, advantage had been 
taken of the absence of the princes, and their thrones had been 
usurped. Thus in Argolis, ^Egisthus had won the unholy love of 
Clytemnestra, wife and queen of Agamemnon, who on his return 
was murdered by the guilty couple. A tradition current among 
the Greeks of later times pointed out Mycenae as the place where 
the unfortunate king and those slain with him were buried. 1 

References. Gayley, C. M., The Classical Myths in the English Literature 
and in Art (rev. ed., 19n), chaps, xiv-xxiv (gives the tales of the older and 
the younger Greek heroes, including the legends of the Argonauts (pp. 229- 
233), the Seven against Thebes (pp. 265-268), and the Trojan War (pp. 277- 
306)). For an admirable summary of the works of Dr. H. Schliemann ( Troy 
and its Remams , 1875, Mycence , 1878, etc.) see Schuchhardt, C., Schliemann' s 
Excavatiojis . Gardner, P., New Chapters in Greek History , chaps, i-v. The 
following works summarize and interpret the new discoveries in Crete : Hall. 
H. R. H., AEgean Arch ecology ; Mosso, A., The Palaces of Crete ; Baikie, J., The 
Sea-kings of Crete ; and Fowler, H. N. and Wheeler, J. R., Greek Archaology , 
chap. i. 

tin 1876 Dr. Schliemann began excavations at Mycenae. The most interesting of his 
discoveries here were several tombs holding the remains of nineteen bodies, which were 
surrounded by an im¬ 
mense number of arti¬ 
cles of gold, silver, and 
bronze,—golden masks 
and breastplates, drink¬ 
ing cups of solid gold, 
bronze swords inlaid 
with gold and silver, and 
personal ornaments of 
every kind. There were 
one hundred pounds in weight of gold articles alone. This discovery assures us that the 
ancient legends, in so far as they represent Mycenae as having been in early pre-Dorian 
times the seat of an influential and wealthy royal race, rest on a basis of actual fact. 






CHAPTER XI 



THE HERITAGE OF THE HISTORIC GREEKS 

96. A Rich and Mixed Heritage. The Greeks when they 
appeared in history, in the eighth century b.c., were the bearers 
of an already advanced culture. They possessed well-developed 
political and religious institutions, a wonderfully copious language, 
a rich and varied mythology, an unrivaled epic literature, and an 
art which, though immature, was yet full of promise. 

This was indeed a rich heritage. It was in part a bequest from 
their own foretime, and in part a legacy from that earlier TLgean 
civilization mentioned in the preceding chapter. There were 
mingled in it also elements derived directly from oriental cultures. 
But all these non-Greek racial and cultural contributions had 
before historic times received the deep impress of the Hellenic 
spirit. This will become evident as we now proceed to examine 
somewhat in detail this heritage of the historic Hellenes, and 
note how different a product it is from anything we have found 
before. 

97. The City-State. The light that falls upon Greece in the 
eighth and seventh centuries b.c. shows most of Greece proper, 
the shore-lands of Asia Minor, and many of the HLgean islands 
filled with cities. Respecting the nature of these cities we must 
say a word, for it is with them—with cities—that Greek history 
has to do. 

In the first place, each of these cities was an independent com¬ 
munity, like a modern nation. It was a city-state. It made war 
and peace and held diplomatic relations with its neighbors. Its 
citizens were aliens in every other city. 

In the second place, these city-states were, as we think of inde¬ 
pendent states, very small. So far as we know, no city in Greece 
proper, save Athens, ever had over twenty thousand arm-bearing 

62 




§ 98] FEELING OF THE GREEK FOR HIS CITY 63 

citizens. In most cases each consisted of nothing more than a 
single walled town with a little encircling zone of farming and 
pasture land. Sometimes, however, the city-state embraced, be¬ 
sides the central town, a large number of smaller places. Thus 
the city-state of Athens, in historic times, included all Attica 
with its hundred or more villages and settlements. In most other 
cases, however, the outlying villages, if any, were so close to the 
walled town that all their inhabitants, in the event of a sudden 
raid by enemies, could get to the city gates in one or two 
hours at most. 

In the third place, each of these early cities was made up of 
groups—clans, phratries or brotherhoods (groups of closely united 
families), and tribes—which were a survival from the tribal 
age of the Greeks, the age before they began to live in cities. It 
was at first only members of these groups who enjoyed the rights 
of citizenship. 

98. Feeling of the Greek for his City. We cannot understand 
Greek history unless we get at the outset a clear idea of the feel¬ 
ings of a Greek toward the city of which he was a member. It 
was his country, the fatherland for which he lived and for which 
he died. Exile from his native city was to him a fate scarcely less 
dreaded than death. This devotion of the Greek to his city was 
the sentiment which corresponds to patriotism amongst us, only, 
being a narrower as well as a religious feeling, it was much more 
intense. 

It was mainly this strong city feeling among the Greeks which 
prevented them from ever uniting to form a single nation. The 
history of Greece is the history of modern Europe in miniature. 
It is, in general, the history of a great number of independent 
cities wearing one another out with their never-ending disputes 
and wars arising from a thousand and one petty causes of rivalry 
and hatred. But it was this very thing that made life in the Greek 
cities so stimulating and strenuous, and that developed so wonder¬ 
fully the faculties of the Greek citizen. In a word, the wonderful 
thing which we call Greek civilization was the flower and fruitage 
of the city-state. 


64 THE HERITAGE OF THE HISTORIC GREEKS [§ 99 

99. Ideas of the Greeks respecting the System of the Universe. 

Forming another important element of the inheritance of the 
historic Greeks were their religious ideas and institutions. In 
speaking of these we shall begin with a word respecting their 
ideas in regard to the system of the universe. 

The Greeks supposed the earth to be, as it appears, a plane, 
circular in form like a shield. Around it ebbed and flowed the 

" mighty strength 
of the ocean 
river,” a stream 
broad and deep, 
beyond which on 
all sides lay realms 
of darkness and 
terror. The heav¬ 
ens were a solid 
vault or dome, 
whose edge shut 
down close upon 
the earth. Be¬ 
neath the earth, 
reached by sub¬ 
terranean pas¬ 
sages, was Hades, 
a vast region, 
the realm of de¬ 
parted souls. Still beneath this was the prison Tartarus, a pit 
deep and dark, made fast by strong gates of brass and iron. 

The sun was an archer god, borne in a fiery chariot up and 
down the steep pathway of the skies. In the western region were 
the Elysian Fields, the abodes of the shades of heroes and poets. 

100. The Olympian Council. At the head of the Greek deities 
there was a council of twelve members, comprising six gods and 
six goddesses. Chief among these male deities were Zeus, the 
father of gods and men; Poseidon, ruler of the sea; and Apollo, 
or Phcebus, the god of light, of music, and of prophecy. 



The World according to Homer 


















































§ 101 ] THE DELPHIAN ORACLE 65 

Among the female divinities were Hera, the proud and jealous 
queen of Zeus; Athena, or Pallas,—who sprang full-grown from 
the forehead of Zeus,— the goddess of wisdom and the patroness of 
the domestic arts ; and Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty . 1 

These great deities were simply magnified human beings. They 
surpassed mortals rather in power than in size of body. Their 
abode was Mount Olympus and the airy regions above the earth. 

101. The Delphian Oracle. The most precious part perhaps 
of the religious heritage of the historic Greeks from the misty 
Hellenic foretime was the oracle of Apollo at Delphi. The Greeks 
believed that in the early ages the gods were wont to visit the 
earth and mingle with men. But even in Homer’s time this famil¬ 
iar intercourse was a thing of the past,—a tradition of a golden 
age that had passed away. In historic times, though the gods 
often revealed their will and intentions through signs and portents, 
still they granted a more special communication of counsel through 
what were known as oracles. The favored spots where these com¬ 
munications were made were called oracles , as were also the 
responses there received. 

The most renowned of the Greek oracles was that at Delphi, in 
Phocis. Here, from a deep fissure in the rocks, arose vapors, 
which were thought to be the inspiring breath of Apollo. Over 
this spot was erected a temple in honor of the Revealer. The com¬ 
munication was generally received by the Pythia, or priestess, 
seated upon a tripod placed above the orifice. As she became over¬ 
powered by the vapors, she uttered the message of the god. These 
mutterings of the Pythia were taken down by attendant priests, 
interpreted, and written in verse. Some of the responses of the 
oracle contained plain and wholesome advice; but very many of 

1 Besides the great gods and goddesses that constituted the Olympian Council, 
there was an almost infinite number of other deities, celestial personages, and mon¬ 
sters neither human nor divine. Hades ruled over the lower realms; Dionysus was the 
god of wine; the goddess Nemesis was the punisher of crime, and particularly the 
queller of the proud and arrogant; .Eolus was the ruler of the winds, which he confined 
in a cave secured by mighty gates. There were nine Muses, inspirers of art and song. 
Three Fates allotted life and death, and three Furies (Eumenides, or Erinyes) 
avenged crime, especially murder and sacrilegious crimes. Besides these there were the 
Centaurs, the Cyclopes, the Harpies, the Gorgons, and a thousand others. 


66 THE HERITAGE OF THE HISTORIC GREEKS [§102 


them, particularly those that implied a knowledge of the future, 
were made obscure and ingeniously ambiguous, so that they might 
correspond with the event however affairs should turn. Thus 
Croesus at the time he made war on Cyrus (sect. 66) was told in 
response to his inquiry that if he undertook the war he would de- 
strov a great empire. He did, indeed,—but the empire was his own. 

The oracle of Delphi gained a celebrity wide as the world. It 
was often consulted by the monarchs of Asia and the people of 
Rome in times of extreme danger and perplexity. Among the 
Greeks scarcely any undertaking was entered upon without the 
will and sanction of the oracle being first sought. 

102. The Olympian Games. Another of the most character¬ 
istic of the religious institutions of the Greeks which they inherited 



Fig. 31. Racing with Four-Horse Chariots. (From a vase painting 

of the fifth century R.c.) 


from prehistoric times was the sacred games celebrated at Olympia 
in Elis, in honor of the Olympian Zeus. The origin of this festival 
is lost in the obscurity of tradition ; but by the opening of the 
eighth century b.c. it had assumed national importance. The 
games were held every fourth year, and the interval between two 
successive festivals was known as an Olympiad. 

The contests consisted of foot races, boxing, wrestling, and 
other athletic games. Later, chariot racing was introduced, and 
became the most popular of all the contests. The competitors 
must be of Hellenic race; must have undergone special training 
in the gymnasium; and must, moreover, be unblemished by any 
crime against the state or sin against the gods. Spectators from 
all parts of the world crowded to the festival. 

The victor was crowned with a garland of sacred olive; heralds 
proclaimed his name abroad; his native city received him as a 
conqueror, sometimes through a breach made in the city walls; 









§ 103] INFLUENCE OF THE GRECIAN GAMES 


67 


his statues, executed by eminent artists, were erected at Olympia 
and in his own city; and poets and orators vied with the 
artist in perpetuating his name and triumphs as the name and 
triumphs of one who had reflected immortal honor upon his 
native state. 

Besides the Olympian games there were transmitted from pre¬ 
historic times the germs at least of three other national festivals. 
These were the Pythian, held, in honor of Apollo, near his 
shrine and.oracle at Delphi; the Nemean, celebrated in honor 
of Zeus, at Nemea, in Argolis: and the Isthmian, observed in 
honor of Poseidon, 
on the Isthmus of 



Corinth. 


103. Influence of 
the Grecian Games. 
For more than a 
thousand years all 
these national fes¬ 
tivals, particularly 
those celebrated at 


Fig. 32. Greek Runners 


Olympia, exerted an 

immense influence upon the social, religious, and literary life of 
Hellas. They enkindled among the widely scattered Hellenic 
states and colonies a common literary taste and enthusiasm; for 
into all the four great festivals, save the Olympian, were intro¬ 
duced, sooner or later, contests in poetry, oratory, and history. 
During the festivals poets and historians read their choicest pro¬ 
ductions, and artists exhibited their masterpieces. The extraor¬ 
dinary honors accorded to the victors stimulated the contestants 
to the utmost, and strung to the highest tension every power 
of body and mind. 

Particularly were the games promotive of sculpture, since they 
afforded the sculptor living models for his art. "Without the 
Olympic games,” says Holm, "we should never have had Greek 
sculpture.” Moreover, they promoted intercourse and trade; for 
the festivals naturally became great centers of traffic and exchange 





68 THE HERITAGE OF THE HISTORIC GREEKS [§ 104 


during the progress of the games. They softened, too, the manners 
of the people, turning their thoughts from martial exploits and 
giving the states respite from war; for during the season in which 
the religious games were held it was sacrilegious' to engage in 
military expeditions. They tended also to keep alive common 
Hellenic feelings and sentiments. In all these ways, though they 
never drew the states into a common political union, they im¬ 
pressed a common character upon their social, intellectual, and 
religious life . 1 

104. The Greek Language. One of the most wonderful things 
which the Greeks brought out of their dim foretime was their 
language. At the beginning of the historic period it was already 
one of the richest and most refined languages ever spoken by 
human lips. Through what number of centuries it was taking 
fortn upon the lips of the forefathers of the historic Greeks, we 
can only vaguely imagine. It bears testimony to a long period 
of true Hellenic life lying behind the historic age in Hellas. 

105. The Homeric Poems. The rich and flexible language of 
the Greeks had already in prehistoric times been wrought into 
epic poems of incomparable beauty and perfection. These epics, 
transmitted from the Greek foretime and known as the "Homeric 
poems,” consist of the Iliad and the Odyssey. Neither their exact 
date nor their authorship is known (sect. 198 ). That they were 
the prized possession of the Greeks at the beginning of the his¬ 
toric period is all that it is important for us to note here. They 
were a sort of Bible to the Greeks, and exercised an incalculable 
influence not only upon the religious but also upon the literary 
life of the entire Hellenic world. 

References. Curtius, E., vol. ii, p. i-m. Grote, G. (ten-volume ed.), 
vol. ii, pp. 164-194; vol. iii, pp. 276-297. Holm, A., vol. i, chaps, i, xi, xix. 
Bury, J. B., History of Greece , pp. 65-73. Fowler, W. W., The City-State of 
the Greeks and Romans , chaps, i-iii. Diehl, C., Excursions in Greece , chap, vii 
(on the Grecian games). Seymour, T. D., Life in the Homeric Age. Gardiner, 
E. N., Greek Athletic Sports and Festivals,, chap, ix (on the Olympic games). 

1 1 he Olympian games, after having been suspended since the fourth century of our 
era, were revived, with an international character, in 1S96, at Athens. 


CHAPTER XII 

THE GROWTH OF SPARTA 

106. Situation of Sparta. Probable tradition tells of a pre¬ 
historic invasion of the Peloponnesus by Dorian tribes and the 
subjugation by them of the earlier population 1 of the peninsula. 
Sparta was one of the cities of the Peloponnesus which owed their 



Fig. 33. Sparta, with the Ranges of the Taygetus 


origin or importance to this conquest. It was situated in the deep 
valley of the Eurotas, in Laconia, and took its name Sparta ("sown 
land”) from the circumstance that it was built upon tillable 
ground, whereas the heart and center of most Greek cities con¬ 
sisted of a lofty rock (the citadel or acropolis). But Sparta needed 
no citadel. Her situation, surrounded as she was by almost im¬ 
passable mountain barriers, and far removed from the sea, was 
her sufficient defense. Indeed, the Spartans seem to have thought 
it unnecessary even to erect a wall round their city, which stood 
open on every side until late and degenerate times. 

1 Probably already Hellenized. 

69 









70 


THE GROWTH OF SPARTA 


[§ 107 


107. Classes in the Spartan State. The population of Laconia 

was divided into three classes,— Spartans, Perioeci, and Helots. 
The Spartans proper were the descendants of the conquerors of 
the country, and were of course Dorian in race and language. 
They composed but a small fraction of the entire population. 

The Perioeci ("dwellers around”) were the subjugated natives. 
They are said to have outnumbered the Spartans three to one. 
They were allowed to retain possession of their lands, but were 
forced to pay tribute-rent, and in times of war to follow the lead 
of their Spartan masters. 

The third and lowest class was composed of serfs, called Helots. 
They were the property of the state, and not of the individual 
Spartan lords, among whom they were distributed by lot. It is 
affirmed that when they grew too numerous for the safety of the 
state, their numbers were thinned by a deliberate massacre of the 
surplus population. 

108. The Spartan Constitution. Of the history of Sparta 
before the eighth century b.c. we have no certain knowledge. 
According to tradition, peace, prosperity, and rapid growth were 
secured through the adoption of a most remarkable political con¬ 
stitution framed by a great lawgiver named Lycurgus. This 
constitution provided for two joint kings, a Senate, a General 
Assembly, and a sort of executive board composed of five persons 
called Ephors. The double sovereignty worked admirably, one 
king being a check upon the other; for five centuries there was 
no successful attempt on the part of a Spartan king to subvert 
the constitution. 

The Senate consisted of twenty-eight elders and the two kings. 
No one could become .a senator until he had reached the age of 
sixty. The General Assembly was composed of all the citizens of 
Sparta over thirty years of age. By this body laws were made and 
questions of peace and war decided. In striking contrast to the 
custom at Athens, all matters were decided without general debate, 
only the magistrates and persons specially invited being allowed 
to address the assemblage. The Spartans were fighters, not 
talkers; they hated windy discussion. 


§ 109] 


THE PUBLIC TABLES 


7i 


109. The Public Tables. In order to correct the extravagance 
with which the tables of the rich were often spread, Lycurgus is 
said to have ordered that all the citizens should eat at public and 
common tables. This was their custom, but Lycurgus could have 
had nothing to do with instituting it. It was part of their 
military life. 

A luxury-loving Athenian once visited Sparta, and, seeing the 
coarse fare of the citizens, is reported to have declared that 
now he understood the Spartan disregard of life in battle. "Any 
one,” said he, "must naturally prefer death to life on such 
fare as this.” 

110. Education of the Youth. Children at Sparta were re¬ 
garded as belonging to the state. Every male infant was brought 
before a Council of Elders, and if it did not seem likely to become 
a robust and useful citizen, was exposed in a mountain glen. At 
seven the education and training of the youth were committed to 
the charge of public officers, called boy trainers. The aim of 
the entire course was to make a nation of soldiers who should 
contemn toil and danger and prefer death to military dishonor. 

The mind was cultivated only as far as might contribute to the 
main object of the system. Reading and writing were not taught, 
and the art of rhetoric was despised. Only martial poems were 
recited. The Spartans had a profound contempt for the subtleties 
and literary acquirements of the Athenians. Spartan brevity was 
a proverb, whence our word laconic (from Laconia), meaning a 
concise and pithy mode of expression. 

But while the mind was neglected, the body was carefully 
trained. In running, leaping, wrestling, and hurling the spear the 
Spartans acquired the most surprising nimbleness and dexterity. 
At the Olympian games Spartan contestants more frequently than 
any others bore off the prizes of victory. 

But before all things else was the Spartan youth taught to bear 
pain unflinchingly. At times he was scourged just for the pur¬ 
pose of accustoming his body to pain. Frequently, it is said, 
boys died under the lash without revealing their suffering by 
look or moan. 


72 


THE GROWTH OF SPARTA 


[§ 111 


That the 'laws and regulations of the Spartan constitution were 
admirably adapted to the end in view,— the rearing of a nation of 
agile and sturdy warriors,— the long military supremacy of Sparta 
among the states of Greece abundantly attests. 

111. The Spartan Conquest of Messenia. The most impor¬ 
tant event in Spartan history between the age of Lycurgus and 
the commencement of the Persian Wars was the long contest with 
Messenia, known as the First and Second Messenian Wars (about 
743-723 and 645-631 b.c.). The outcome of the protracted 
struggle was the defeat of the Messenians and their reduction to 
the hard and bitter condition of the Helots of Laconia. Many 
of the nobles fled the country and found hospitality as exiles in 
other lands. Some of the fugitives conquered for themselves a 
place in Sicily and gave name and importance to the still existing 

* city of Messana (Messina), on the Sicilian straits. 

Thus Sparta secured possession of Messenia. From the end of 
the Second Messenian War on to the decline of the Spartan power 
in the fourth century b.c., the Messenians were the serfs of the 
Spartans. All the southern part of the Peloponnesus was now 
Spartan territory. 

112. Sparta becomes Supreme in the Peloponnesus. After 
Sparta had secured possession of Messenia, her influence and power 
advanced steadily until her leadership was acknowledged by most of 
the states of the Peloponnesus. She now, as head of a Peloponne¬ 
sian league, began to be looked to even by the Greek cities beyond 
the peninsula as the natural leader and champion of the Greeks. 

Having now traced in brief outline the rise of Sparta to su¬ 
premacy in the Peloponnesus, we must turn aside to take a wider 
look over Hellas, in order to note an expansion movement of the 
Hellenic race which resulted in the establishment of Hellenes upon 
almost every shore of the then known world. 

References. Plutarch, Lycurgus. Curtius, E., vol. i, pp. 175-275. Grote,. 
G. (ten-volume ed.), vol. ii, pp. 259-376. Abbott, E., vol. i, chaps, vi-viii. 
Holm, A., vol. i, chaps, xv-xvii. Allcroft and Masom, Early Grecian His- 
tory , chaps, viii, xi. Oman, C., History of Greece , chaps, vii, viii. Bury, J. B., 
History of Greece, chap. iii. 


/ 


CHAPTER XIII 

THE AGE OF COLONIZATION AND OF TYRANNIES 

I. THE AGE OF COLONIZATION (ABOUT 750-600 b.c.) 

113. Causes of Greek Colonization. The latter half of the 
eighth and the seventh century b.c. constituted a period in Greek 
history marked by great activity in the establishment of colonies. 
One inciting cause of this outward movement at this time was the 
political unrest which had come to fill almost all the cities of 
Greece. Oligarchies and tyrannies had arisen, and the people 
oftentimes were oppressed. Thousands, driven from their homes, 
like the Puritans in the time of the Stuart tyranny in England, fled 
over the seas, and, under the direction of the Delphian Apollo, 
laid upon remote and widely separated shores the basis of "dis¬ 
persed Hellas.” The growth in population, the expansion of the 
trade of the homeland cities, and the Greek love of adventure also 
contributed to swell the number of emigrants. 

114. Relation of a Greek Colony to its Mother City. The 
history of the Greek colonies would be unintelligible without an 
understanding of the relation in which a Greek colony stood to 
the city sending out the emigrants. There was a wide difference 
between Greek colonization and Roman. The Roman colony was 
subject to the authority of the mother city. The Greek colony, 
on the other hand, was, in almost all cases, wholly independent 
of its parent city. The Greek mind could not entertain the idea 
of one city as rightly ruling over another, even though that other 
were her own daughter colony. 

But while there were no political bonds uniting the mother city 
and her daughter colonies, still the colonies were attached to their 
parent country by ties of kinship, of culture, and of filial piety. 
The sacred fire on the altar of the new home was kindled from 


73 


74 AGE OF COLONIZATION AND TYRANNIES [§115 


embers piously borne by the emigrants from the public hearth of 
the mother city, and testified constantly that the citizens of the 
two cities were members of the same though divided family. 

The feeling the colonists had for their mother city is shown by 
the names which they often gave to the prominent objects in and 
about their new home. Just as the affectionate memory of the 
homes from which they had gone out prompted the New England 
colonists to reproduce in the new land the names of places and 
objects dear to them in the old, so did the cherished remembrance 
of the land they had left lead the Greek emigrants to give to the 
streets and temples and fountains and hills of their new city the 
familiar and endeared names of the old home. The new city was 
simply "a home away from home.” 

115. The Chalcidian Colonies (about 750-650 b.c.). An early 
colonizing ground of the Greeks was the Macedonian coast. Here 
a triple promontory juts far out into the ^Egean. On this 
broken shore Chalcis of. Euboea, with the help of emigrants 
from other cities, founded so many colonies—thirty-two owned 
her as their mother city—that the land became known as 
Chalcidice. 

One of the chief attractions of this shore to the Greek colonists 
was the rich copper, silver, and gold deposits. The hills, too, were 
clothed with heavy forests which furnished excellent timber for 
shipbuilding, and this was an important item of export, since in 
many parts of Greece timber was scarce. 

116. Colonies on the Hellespont and the Bosphorus. A 
second region full of attractions for the colonists of the enter¬ 
prising commercial cities of the mother country was that embrac¬ 
ing the Hellespont and the Bosphorus. These water channels, 
forming as they do the gateway to the northern world, early drew 
the attention of the Greek traders. Here was founded, among 
other cities, Byzantium (658 b.c.). The city was built, under the 
direction pf the Delphian oracle , 1 on one of the most magnificent 

1 The managers of the oracle, doubtless through the visitors to the shrine, kept them¬ 
selves informed respecting the islands and coasts of the Mediterranean, and thus were 
able to give good advice to those contemplating the founding of a new settlement. 



'la'ific' 

r son® 3Ui 


CM 1 '? 0 ' 1 


Istros 


•Affath, 


Odesaos 4f 


'assalia 


.Ancon' 


Mcsambria. 


•mporiai oi 


Epidaw 


%oty ora 


PAPBt A ' 

✓» fle'-adea 

iuthynia 


Jpolloriia 


* fc Tf lssos J \ 

fc Epidamnus ^ <S N 

^ / (byrrhachium) V, 0 ' 1^, 

jj' I CjI i 

refcWiri<m Apollonia (V a i c i<ju;e’ 

—/* ' Dudona/ ' s *d , -jtin<tPx 
,rii Corcyra^c, / 

’ vE<olia~\~£>t»sA 


Perm' 


’ c ynthu 


Aino s 


Neapolis^, 

Poseidonia 


SARDINIA 


cVLesbo* 

r*. 

•* Chiosy 2^ 

, ens Samos 


Sardis 


[Cnton 


Anactopnm 

Leucas p * 
lthaca\ 


O H 
Meseaii a 


•/Caulenui 
/Locri (i 
!j/wm 


i 

Selinua' —\ sicily 
aa . IA crag a i \ 

mchedon OelSt 

yartliage) « 


yNaxui 
c *yatana 
°%eontini 

vi Syracuse 


Ha&os 


Seli nuS 


"plus’ 


efCnvdus « 


Thera 


Hadrumetm 


CRETK 


GREECE 

AND THE 

GREEK COLONIES 


Ionian. 


Dorian 


Other Greek Daces 


Scale of Miles, 


Phoenician 

Settlements 






























































































































§ 117] COLONIES IN THE EUXINE REGION 75 

sites for a great emporium that the ancient world afforded. It 
was destined to a long and checkered history. 

117. Colonies in the Euxine Region. The tale of the Argo¬ 
nauts (sect. 93 ) shows that in prehistoric times the Greeks prob¬ 
ably carried on trade with the shores of the Euxine. The chief 
products of the region were fish, grain, and cattle, besides timber, 
gold, copper, and iron. Still another object of commerce was 
slaves. This region was a sort of slave hunters’ land,— the Africa 
of Hellas. It supplied to a great degree the slave markets of 



Fig. 34 . Ruined Temples at Pa£stum 

Paestum was the Greek Posidonia, in Lucania. These ruins form the most noteworthy 
existing monuments of the early Greek occupation of southern Italy 


the Hellenic world. In the modern Caucasian slave trade of the 
Mohammedan sultans we may recognize a survival of a commerce 
which was active twenty-five hundred years ago. 

Eighty colonies in the Euxine are said to have owned Miletus 
as their mother city. The coasts of the sea became so crowded 
with Greek cities, and the whole region was so astir with Greek 
enterprise, that the Greeks came to regard this quarter of the 
world, once looked upon as so remote and inhospitable, as almost 
a part of the home country. 

118. Colonies in Southern Italy. At the same time that the 
tide of Hellenic migration was flowing towards the north it was 
also flowing towards the west. Southern Italy became so thickly 
set with Greek cities as to become known as Magna Graecia, 
" Great Greece.” Here were founded during the latter part of the 
eighth century b.c. the important city of Taras, the Tarentum 



76 AGE OF COLONIZATION AND TYRANNIES [§ 119 


of the Romans, and the ^Eolian city of Sybaris, noted for the 
voluptuous life of its citizens, whence our term sybarite , mean¬ 
ing a person given to sensual pleasures. 

The chief importance of the cities of Magna Grajcia for civili¬ 
zation springs from their relations to Rome. Through them, with¬ 
out doubt, the early Romans received many primary elements of 
culture, deriving thence probably their knowledge of letters as 
well as of Greek constitutional law (sect. 227 ). 

119. Colonies in Sicily and in Southern Gaul. The island of 
Sicily is in easy sight from the Italian shore. About the same 
time that the southern part of the peninsula was being filled with 
Greek colonists, this island was also receiving swarms of immi¬ 
grants. Here among other colonies was planted by the Dorian 
Corinth the city of Syracuse (734 b.c.), which, before Rome had 
become great, waged war on equal terms with Carthage. 

Sicily was the most disorderly and tumultuous part of Hellas. 
It was the "wild West” of the Hellenic world. It was the land 
of romance and adventure, and seems to have drawn to itself the 
most untamed and venturesome spirits among the Greeks. 

The coast of Gaul where the Rhone meets the sea was another 
region occupied by Greek colonists. A chief attraction here was 
the amber and tin brought overland from the Baltic and from 
Britain. Here were established several colonies, chief among 
which was Massilia (about 600 b.c.), the modern Marseilles. 

120. Colonies in North Africa and Egypt. In the Nile Delta 
the Greeks early established the important station of Naucratis, 
which was the gateway through which Hellenic influences passed 
into Egypt and Egyptian influences passed out into Greece. Some¬ 
time in the seventh century b.c., in obedience to the commands 
of the Delphian Apollo, they founded on the African coast the 
important colony of Cyrene, which became the metropolis of a 
large district known as Cyrenaica. 

121. Place of the Colonies in Grecian History. The history of 
dispersed Hellas is closely interwoven with that of continental 
Hellas. In truth, a large part of the history of Greece would be 
unintelligible should we lose sight of Greater Greece, just as a. 


5 122 ] CHARACTER OF THE GREEK TYRANNIES 77 

large part of the history of Europe since the seventeenth century 
cannot be understood without a knowledge of Greater Europe. 
In colonial interests, rivalries, and jealousies we shall find the 
inciting cause of many of the contentions and wars between the 
cities of the homeland. 

II. THE TYRANNIES (ABOUT 650-500 b.c.) 

122. The Character and Origin ot the Greek Tyrannies. 

The latter part of the period of Greek colonization corresponds 
very nearly to what has been called the "Earlier Age of the 
Tyrants ,” 1 of whom a word must here be said. 

In the Heroic Age the preferred form of government among the 
Greeks was a patriarchal monarchy. The Iliad says, "The rule 
of many is not a good thing: let us have one ruler only,—one 
king,—him to whom Zeus has given the scepter.” But by the dawn 
of the historic period the patriarchal monarchies of the early age 
had given place, in almost all the Grecian cities, to oligarchies or 
aristocracies. A little later, just as the Homeric monarchies had 
been superseded by oligarchies, so were these in many of the Greek 
cities superseded by tyrannies. 

By the term tyrannos ("tyrant”) the Greeks did not mean one 
who ruled harshly, but simply one who held the supreme authority 
in the state illegally. Some of the Greek tyrants were beneficent 
rulers, though too often they were all that the name implies among 
us. There was hardly an important Greek city which did not at 
one time or another fall into the hands of a tyrant. 

Generally the person setting up a tyranny was some ambitious 
member of the aristocracy, who had held himself out as the cham¬ 
pion of the people, and who, aided by them, had succeeded in 
overturning the hated government of the oligarchs. 

123. The Greek Feeling toward the Tyrants. The tyrants sat 
upon unstable thrones. The Greeks, always lovers of freedom, had 

1 Fora hundred years after the expulsion of the tyrants from Athens (sect. 131) there 
were no tyrants in Greece proper, and for a great part of this time there were no tyrants 
anywhere in the Greek world. In the fourth century b. c. tyrants arose again, particularly 
in Sicily. This distribution in time of these rulers leads some historians to divide the 
tyrannies into an earlier and a later age. 


78 AGE OF COLONIZATION AND TYRANNIES [§ 124 

an inextinguishable hatred of these despots. Furthermore, the 
atrocious crimes of some of them caused the whole class to be 
regarded with the utmost abhorrence,—so much so that tyranni¬ 
cide, that is, the killing of a tyrant, came to be regarded by the 
Greeks as a supremely patriotic and virtuous act. Consequently 
the tyrannies were, as a rule, short-lived. They were usually vio¬ 
lently overthrown, and the old oligarchies reestablished, or democ¬ 
racies set up in their place. Speaking broadly, the Dorian cities 
preferred aristocratic and the Ionian cities democratic government. 

124. Influence of the Tyrants upon Greek Civilization. The 
rule of the tyrants conferred some undoubted benefits upon Greek 
civilization. Through the connections which the despots formed 
with foreign kings the isolation of the Greek cities was broken. 
These connections between the courts of the tyrants and those of 
the rulers of oriental countries opened the cities of the Hellenic 
world to the influences of those lands of culture, widened theii 
horizon, and enlarged the sphere of their commercial enterprise. 

Again, the tyrants were apt to be liberal patrons of art and lit¬ 
erature. Poetry and music flourished in the congenial atmosphere 
of their luxurious courts, while architecture was given a great 
impulse by the public buildings and works which many of them 
undertook with a view of embellishing their capitals, or of winning 
the favor of the poorer classes by creating opportunities for their 
employment. Thus it happened that the Age of the Tyrants was 
a period marked by an unusually rapid advance of many of the 
Greek cities in their artistic, intellectual, and industrial life. 

References. For the colonies : Curtius, E., vol. i, pp. 432-500. Grote, G. 
(ten-volume ed.), vol. iii, pp. 163-220, 247-275. Abbott, E., vol. i, pp. 333- 
365. Holm, A., vol. i, chap. xxi. Oman. C., History of Greece , chap. ix. Bury, 
J. B., Histoiy of Greece , chap. ii. Keller, A. G., Colonization , pp. 39-50. 

For the tyrannies : Grote, G. (ten-volume ed.), vol. ii, pp. 378-421. Holm, 
A., vol. i, chap. xxii. Fowler, W. W., The City-State of the Greeks and 
Romans , chaps, iv, v. Mahaffy, J. P., Problems in Greek History, chap, iv, 
and Survey of Greek Civilization , pp. 99-101. Cox, G. W., Lives of Greek 
Statesmen , " Polykrates.” Herodotus, iv, 150-153, 156-159 (on the Delphic 
oracle and Greek colonization). 































* - 















■ 









Fig. 35. Tiie Acropolis of Athens. (From a photograph) 











CHAPTER XIV 


THE HISTORY OF ATHENS UP TO THE PERSIAN WARS 

125. The Beginnings of Athens. Four or five miles from the 
sea, a little hill, about one thousand feet in length and half as many 
in width, rises about one hundred and fifty feet above the level 
of the plains of Attica. The security afforded by this eminence 
doubtless led to its selection as a stronghold by the early settlers 
of the Attic plains. Here a few buildings, perched upon the sum¬ 
mit of the rock and surrounded by a palisade, constituted the 
beginnings of the capital whose fame has spread over all the world. 

126. The Archons, the Council of the Areopagus, and the 
General Assembly. In prehistoric times Athens, like all other 
Greek cities, was ruled by kings. The name of Theseus is the 
most noted of the regal line. By the opening of the seventh cen¬ 
tury b.c. a board of nine persons, called Archons, of whom the 
king in a subordinate position was one, stood at the head of the 
Athenian state. The ancient monarchy had become an oligarchy. 

Besides the board of Archons there was in the Athenian state 
at this time a very important tribunal, called the Council of the 
Areopagus. 1 This council was composed exclusively of ex-Archons, 
and consequently was a purely aristocratic body. Its members 
held office for life. The duty of the council was to see that the 
laws were duly observed, and to judge and punish transgressors. 
There was no appeal from its decisions. This council was, at the 
opening of the historic period, the real power in the Athenian state. 

In addition to the board of Archons and the Council of the 
Areopagus, there is some evidence of the existence of a general 
assembly (’E/ocA .rjaia, Ecclesia), in which all those who served in 
the heavy-armed forces of the state had a place. 

1 So called from the name of the hill "Apetos irayos, " Hill of Ares,” which was the 
assembling place of the council. See Acts xvii, 22-31. 

.79 


8o 


THE HISTORY OF ATHENS 


[§ 127 


127. Classes in the Athenian State. The leading class in the 
Athenian state were the nobles. These men were wealthy land- 
owners, a large part of the best soil of Attica, it is said, being 
held by them. 

Beneath the nobles we find the body of the nominally free 
inhabitants. Many of them were tenants living in a state little 
removed from serfdom upon the estates of the wealthy nobles. 

They paid rent in 
kind to their land¬ 
lords, and in case 
of failure to pay, 
they, together with 
their wives and 
children, might be 
seized by the pro* 
prietor and sold 
as slaves. Others 
owned their little 
farms, but at the 
time of which we 
are speaking had 
fallen deeply in 
debt. Thus because of their wretched economic condition, as 
well as because of their exclusion from the government, these 
classes among the common people were filled with bitterness 
toward the nobles and were ready for revolution. 

128. Draco’s Code (621 b.c.). It was probably to quiet the 
people and to save the state from anarchy that the nobles at this 
time appointed a person named Draco, one of their own order, 
to write out and publish the laws. 1 

In carrying into effect his commission, Draco probably did little 
more than reduce existing rules and customs to a definite and 

1 Up to this time the rules and customs of the city had been unwritten, and hence 
the magistrates, who belonged to the order of the nobility and alone administered the 
laws, could and often did interpret them unfairly in favor of their own class. The 
people demanded that the customs should be put in writing and published, so that 
everyone might know just what they were (compare sect. 247). 



Fig. 36. The Be.ma, or Orator’s Stand, on 
the Pnyx Hill, Athens. (From a photograph) 








129] 


THE REFORMS OF SOLON 


81 


written form. The laws as published were very severe. Death 
was the penalty for the smallest theft. This severity of the 
Draconian laws is what caused a later Athenian orator to say 
that they were written "not in ink, but in blood.” 

There was one real and great defect in Draco’s work. He did 
not accomplish anything in the way of economic reform, and 
thus did nothing to give relief to those who were struggling with 
poverty and were the victims of the harsh laws of debt. 

129. The Reforms of Solon (594 b.c.). The condition of the 
poorer classes grew more and more unendurable. Some radical 
measures of relief became necessary. Once more, as in the time 
of Draco, the Athenians resolved to place their laws in the hands 
of a single man, to be remodeled as he might deem best. Solon, 
a man held in high esteem by all classes, was selected to discharge 
this responsible duty. Solon turned his attention first to relieving 
the misery of the debtor class. He canceled all debts of every 
kind, both public and private. 1 Moreover, that there might never 
again be seen in Attica the spectacle of men dragged off in chains 
to be sold as slaves in payment of their debts, Solon forbade the 
practice of securing debts on the body of the debtor. No Athenian 
was ever after this sold for debt. 

Such was the most important of the economic reforms of Solon. 
His constitutional reforms were equally wise and beneficent. The 
Ecclesia, or popular assembly, was at this time composed of all 
those persons who were able to provide themselves with arms and 
armor; that is to say, of all the members of the three highest of 
the four propertied classes into which the people were divided. 
The fourth and poorest class, the Thetes, were excluded. Solon 
opened the Ecclesia to them, giving them the right to vote but 
not to hold office. He also made other changes in the constitu¬ 
tion whereby the magistrates became responsible to the people, 
who henceforth not only elected them but judged them in case 
they did wrong. 


1 This is Aristotle’s account of the matter (.Athenian Constitution , ch.6). According 
to other accounts, Solon annulled only debts secured on land or on the person of the 
debtor. Solon also reformed the monetary system. 


82 


THE HISTORY OF ATHENS 


[§ 130 


130. The Tyrant Pisistratus (560-527 b.c.). The reforms of 
Solon naturally worked hardship to many persons. T hese became 
bitter enemies of the new order of things. Moreover, the reformed 
constitution failed to work smoothly. Taking advantage of the 
situation, Pisistratus, an ambitious noble, with a small force 
seized the Acropolis and made himself master of Athens. Though 

twice expelled from the city, he as 
often returned and reinstated him¬ 
self in the tyranny. 

Pisistratus may be taken as a 
type of the better class of Greek 
tyrants. He gave Athens a mild 
rule, and under him the city en¬ 
joyed a period of great prosperity. 
He established religious festivals, 
adorned the city with splendid 
buildings, and is said also to have 
added to the embellishments of the 
Lyceum, a sort of public park just 
cutside the city walls, which in 
after times became one of the fa¬ 
vorite resorts of the poets, phi¬ 
losophers, and pleasure seekers of 
the capital. 

131. Expulsion of the Tyrants 
from Athens (510 b.c.). The two 
sons of Pisistratus, Hippias and Hipparchus, succeeded to his 
power. At first they emulated the example of their father, and 
Athens flourished under their rule. But at length an unfortunate 
event gave an entirely different tone to the government. Hip¬ 
parchus having insulted a young noble named Harmodius, this 
man, in connection with his friend Aristogiton and some others, 
planned to assassinate both the tyrants. Hipparchus was slain, 
but the plans of the conspirators miscarried as to Hippias. Har¬ 
modius was struck down by the guards of the tyrants, and 
Aristogiton was seized and put to death. 



Fig. 37. The Athenian 1 
Tyrannicides, Harmodius 
and Aristogiton 

Marble statues in the Naples Mu¬ 
seum, recognized as ancient copies of 
the bronze statues set up at Athens in 
commemoration of the assassination 
of the tyrant Hipparchus 









§132] 


THE REFORMS OF CLISTHENES 


83 


We have already spoken of how tyrannicide appeared to the 
Greek mind as an eminently praiseworthy act (sect. 123 ). This 
is well illustrated by the grateful and venerated remembrance in 
which Harmodius and Aristogiton were ever held by the Athenians. 
Statues were raised in their honor (Fig. 37 ), and the story of their 
deed was rehearsed to the youth as an incentive to patriotism and 
self-devotion. 

The plot had a most unhappy effect upon the disposition of 
Hippias. It caused him to become suspicious and severe. His 
rule now became a tyranny indeed. He was finally driven out 
•of the city. 

132. The Reforms of Clisthenes (508 b.c.). Straightway upon 
the expulsion of the tyrant Hippias, old feuds between factions of 
the nobles broke out afresh. A prominent noble named Clisthenes, 
head of one of the factions, feeling that he was not receiving in the 
way of coveted office the recognition from his own order which his 
merits deserved, allied himself with the common people as their 
champion. He thus got control of affairs in the state. With power 
once in his hands he used it to remold the constitution into a form 
still more democratic than that given it by Solon. 

One of the most important of his measures was that by which 
he conferred citizenship upon a great body of poor Athenians who 
had hitherto been excluded from the rights of the city, and also 
upon many resident aliens and freedmen. This measure, which 
was effected through a regrouping of the people, made such radical 
changes in the constitution in the interests of the masses that 
Clisthenes has been called "the second founder of the Athenian 

m 

democracy.” 

133. Ostracism. Among the other innovations or institutions 
generally ascribed to Clisthenes was the celebrated one known as 
ostracism. By means of this process any person who had excited 
the suspicions or displeasure of the people could by popular vote, 
without trial, be banished from Athens for a period of ten years. 
The name of the person whose banishment was sought was written 
on a shell or a piece of pottery, in Greek ostrakon ( oarpaKov ), 
whence the term ostracism. 


84 


THE HISTORY OF ATHENS 


[§ 134 


The design of this institution was to prevent the recurrence of 
such a usurpation as that of Pisistratus. It was first used to get 
rid of some of the old friends of the ex-tyrant Hippias, whom the 
Athenians distrusted. Later the vote came to be employed, as a 
rule, simply to settle disputes between rival leaders of political 
parties. Thus the vote merely expressed political preference, the 
ostracized person being simply the defeated candidate for popular 
favor. No stigma or disgrace attached to him. 

The power that the device of ostracism lodged in the hands of 
the people was not always wisely used, and some of the ablest and 
most patriotic statesmen of Athens were sent into exile through 
the influence of some demagogue who for the moment had caught 
the popular ear. 1 

134. Sparta Opposes the Athenian Democracy. The aristo¬ 
cratic party at Athens was naturally bitterly opposed to all these 
democratic innovations. The Spartans also viewed with disquiet 
and jealousy this rapid growth of the Athenian democracy, and, 
inviting Hippias over from Asia, tried to overthrow the new gov¬ 
ernment and restore him to power. But they did not succeed in 
their purpose, because their allies refused to aid them in such an 
undertaking, and Hippias went away to Persia to seek aid of 
King Darius. 

References. Plutarch, Solon. Curtius, E., vol. i, pp. 316-431. Grote, 
G. (ten-volume ed.), vol. ii, pp. 422-529; vol. iii, pp. 324-398. Abbott, E., 
vol. i, chaps, ix, xiii, xv. The accounts of the Athenian constitution in Curtius, 
Grote, and Abbott, which were written before the discovery of the Aristotelian 
treatise ( Athenian Constitution ), must be read in the light of the new evidence. 
Holm, A., vol. i, chaps, xxvi-xxviii. IIopkinson, L. W., Greek Leaders, pp. 1- 
17, " Solon.” Cox, G. W., Lives of Greek Statesmen , " Solon,” " Peisistratus,” 
and " Kleisthenes.” Bury, J. B., History of Greece, chap, iv, sect, iv; chap, v, 
sect. ii. Tucker, T. G., I^ife in Ancient Athens , chap, ii (on the environ¬ 
ment of Athens). Young readers will enjoy Harrison, J. A., Story of Greece , 
chaps, xvi-xviii. 

1 the institution was short-lived. It was resorted to for the last time during the 
Peloponnesian'War (418 b.c.). I he people then, in a freak, ostracized a man, Hyper¬ 
bolus by name, whom all admitted to be the meanest man in Athens. This, it is said, 
was regarded as such a degradation of the institution, as well as such an honor to the 
mean man, that never thereafter did the Athenians degrade a good man or honor a bad 
onf by a resort to the measure. 



CHAPTER XV 

# 

THE PERSIAN WARS 
(500-479 B.C.) 

135. The Real Cause of the Persian Wars. In a foregoing 
chapter we showed how the expansive energies of the Greek race, 
chiefly during the eighth and seventh centuries b.c., covered the 
islands and shores of the Mediterranean world with a free, liberty- 
loving, progressive, and ever-growing population of Hellenic speech 
and culture. The first half of the sixth century had barely passed 
before this promising expansion movement was first checked and 
then seriously cramped by the rise of a great despotic Asiatic 
power, the Persian Empire. By the opening of the fifth century 
b.c. all the Asian Greek cities had been enslaved, and the Tigean 
had become practically a Persian lake. These encroachments 
threatened to leave the Greeks no standing room on the earth. 
Here must be sought the real cause of the memorable wars between 
Hellas and Persia. 

136. The Ionian Revolt (500 B.c.), The Greek cities reduced 
to servitude by Persia could neither long nor quietly endure the 
loss of their independence. In the year 500 b.c. Ionia became 
the center of a formidable rebellion against the Great King . 1 The 
Athenians sent twenty ships to the aid of their Ionian kinsmen. 
Sardis was taken and burned. Defeated in battle, the Athenians 
forsook their Ionian confederates and sailed back to Athens. 

This unfortunate expedition was destined to have tremendous 
consequences. The Athenians had not only burned Sardis, but 
"had set the whole world on fire.” When the news of the affair 

1 Darius I. See sect. 67. 

85 

















86 


THE PERSIAN WARS 


[§ 137 


reached Darius at Susa, he asked, Herodotus tells us, who the 
Athenians were and, being told, took his bow and shot an arrow 
upward into the sky, saying as he let fly the shaft, " Grant, O Zeus, 
that I may have vengeance on the Athenians.” After this speech 
he bade one of his servants every day repeat to him three times 
these words: " Master, remember the Athenians.” 

137. The First Expedition of Darius against Greece (492 B.c.). 
The Ionian revolt having been crushed and punished, Darius deter¬ 
mined to chastise the European Greeks, and particularly the Athe¬ 
nians, for giving aid to his rebellious subjects. A large land and 
naval armament was fitted out for the conquest of Greece. The 
land forces suffered severe losses at the hands of the barbarians of 
Thrace, and the fleet was wrecked by a violent storm off Mount 
Athos, three hundred ships being lost. 

138. The Second Expedition of Darius; the Battle of 
Marathon (490 b.c.). Undismayed by this disaster, Darius issued 
orders for the raising and equipping of another and stronger arma¬ 
ment. Soon a large force had been mustered for a second attempt 
upon Greece. A fleet of six hundred ships bore the army from the 
coasts of Asia Minor over the TEgean toward the Grecian shores. 
After receiving the submission of the most important of the 
Cyclades, the Persians landed at Marathon, barely one day’s- 
journey from Athens. Instead of awaiting behind their walls the 
coming of the Persians, the Athenians decided to offer them battle 
in the open field at Marathon. Accordingly they marched out 
ten thousand strong. 

Meanwhile a fleet runner, Phidippides by name, was hurrying 
with a message to Sparta for aid. In just thirty-six hours Phidip¬ 
pides was in Sparta, which is one hundred and thirty-five or forty 
miles from Athens. Now it so happened that it lacked a few days 
of the full of the moon, during which interval the Spartans, owing 
to an old superstition, dared not set out upon a military expedition. 
They promised aid, but moved only in time to reach Athens after 
all was over. 

The battle was begun by the Athenians under their general 
Miltiades. The issue was for a time doubtful. Then the tide 


§ 139] RESULTS OF THE BATTLE OF MARATHON 87 

turned in favor of the Greeks, and the Persians were driven to 
their ships with great slaughter. After threatening Athens with 
attack, but finding the Athenians ready to receive them, the 
Persians sailed away for the Ionian shore. 

139. Results of the Battle of Marathon. The battle of Mara¬ 
thon is justly reckoned as one of the "decisive battles of the 
world.” It marks a turning point in the history of humanity. 
By the victory Hellenic civilization was saved to mature its fruit, 
not for Hellas alone but for the world. We cannot conceive what 
European civilization would be like without those rich and vitaliz¬ 
ing elements contributed to it by the Greek, and especially by the 
Athenian, genius. But the germs of all these might have been 
smothered and destroyed had the barbarians won the day at 
Marathon. Ancient Greece, as a satrapy of the Persian Empire, 
would certainly have become what modern Greece became as a 
province of the empire of the Ottoman Turks. 

The great achievement further inspired the Athenians with 
self-confidence. They did great things thereafter because they 
believed themselves able to do them. From the battle of Marathon 
dates the beginning of. the great days of imperial Athens. 

140. Themistocles and his Naval Policy; Aristides Opposes 
him and is Ostracized (483 B.C.). Many among the Athenians 
were inclined to believe that the battle of Marathon had freed 
Athens forever from the danger of a Persian invasion. But there 
was at least one among them who was clear-sighted enough to 
see that that battle was only the beginning of a great struggle. 
This was Themistocles, a sagacious, farsighted, versatile states¬ 
man, who, in his own words, though "he knew nothing of music 
and song, did know how of a small city to make a great one.” The 
policy he urged upon the Athenians was to strengthen their navy 
as the only reliable defense of Hellas against subjection to the 
Persian power. 

Themistocles was opposed in this policy by Aristides, called the 
Just, a man of the most scrupulous integrity, who feared that 
Athens would make a serious mistake if she converted her land 
force into a naval armament. The contention grew so sharp 


88 


THE PERSIAN WARS 


[§ 141 


between the two that ostracism was called into use to decide the 
matter. Six thousand votes were cast against Aristides, and he 
was sent into exile. 

It is related that while the vote that ostracized him was being 
taken in the popular assembly, an illiterate peasant, who was a 
stranger to Aristides, asked him to write the name of Aristides 
upon his tablet. As he placed the name desired upon the shell, 
the statesman asked the man what wrong Aristides had ever done 
him. "None,” responded the voter; "I do not even know him; 
but 1 am tired of hearing him called the Just.” 

After the banishment of Aristides, Themistocles was free to 
carry out his naval policy without serious opposition, and soon 
Athens had the largest fleet of any Greek city, with a splendid 
harbor at Piraeus. 

141. The Invasion of Greece by Xerxes; the Battle of 
Thermopylae (480 b.c.). As soon as news of the disaster at l\Iara- 
thon reached Darius he began preparations to avenge this second 
defeat. In the midst of these plans for revenge death cut short his 
reign. His son Xerxes succeeded him, and, after some delay, 
pushed forward with energy the preparations already begun. To 
facilitate the march of his armies, Xerxes caused to be constructed 
a double bridge of boats across the Hellespont. This work was 
in the hands of Egyptian and Phoenician artisans. 

With the first indications of the opening spring of 480 b.c., 
just ten years after the defeat at Marathon, a vast Persian army 
was concentrating from all points upon the Hellespont. The pas¬ 
sage of the strait, as pictured in the inimitable narration of 
Herodotus, is one of the most dramatic of all the spectacles af¬ 
forded by history. Herodotus affirms that for seven days and 
seven nights the bridges groaned beneath the living tide that Asia 
was pouring into Europe. 1 

Leading from northern into central Greece is a narrow pass, 
pressed on one side by the sea and on the other by rugged 

1 According to Herodotus, the land and naval forces of Xerxes amounted to 
2,317,000 men, besides about 2,000,000 slaves and attendants. It is certain that these 
figures are a great exaggeration, and that the actual number of the Persian army could 
not have exceeded 600,000 men aside from attendants and camp followers. 


§141] 


THE BATTLE OF THERMOPYLAE 


89 


mountain ridges. At the foot of the cliffs break forth several hot 
springs, whence the name of the pass, Thermopylae, or Hot Gates. 
Here the Greeks had decided to make their first stand against- the 
invaders. Leonidas, king of Sparta, with three hundred Spartan 
soldiers and about six thousand allies from different states, held 
the pass. 

The Spartans could be driven from their advantageous position 
only by an attack in front, as the Grecian fleet prevented Xerxes 
from landing a force in their rear. Before attacking them, Xerxes 
summoned them to give up their arms. The answer of Leonidas 
was, "Come and take them.” For two days the Persians tried 
in vain to storm the pass. Even the Ten Thousand Immortals, 1 
the famous bodyguard of the Great King, were hurled back from 
the Spartan front like waves from a cliff. 

But an act of treachery on the part of a native Greek, Ephialtes 
by name, "the Judas of Greece,” rendered unavailing all the brav¬ 
ery of the keepers of the pass. This man, hoping for a large 
reward, revealed to Xerxes a bypath leading over the mountain to 
the rear of the Greeks. The startling intelligence was brought to 
Leonidas that the Persians were descending the mountain path in 
his rear. Realizing that the pass could no longer be held, the most 
of the allies now withdrew from the place while opportunity still 
remained; but for Leonidas and his Spartan companions there 
could be no thought of retreat. Death in the pass, the defense 
of which had been intrusted to them, was all that Spartan honor 
and Spartan law now left them. The next day, surrounded by the 
Persian host, they fought with desperate valor; but, overwhelmed 
by mere numbers, they were slain to the last man. 

The fight at Thermopylae echoed through all the after centuries 
of Grecian history. The Greeks felt that all Hellas had gained 
great glory on that day when Leonidas and his companions fell, 
and they gave them a chief place among their national heroes. 
Memorial pillars marked for coming generations the sacred spot, 
while praising inscriptions and epitaphs told in brief phrases the 
* 

1 This body of picked soldiers was so called because its number was always kept up 
to ten thousand. 


90 


THE PERSIAN WARS 


[§ 142 


story of the battle. Among these was an inscription which, 
commemorating at once Spartan law and Spartan valor, read, 
" Stranger, go tell the Lacedaemonians that we lie here in obedience 
to their commands ! ” 

142. The Athenians abandon their City and betake them¬ 
selves to their Ships. Athens now lay open to the invaders. 
Counsels were divided. The Delphian oracle had obscurely de¬ 
clared, "When everything else in the land of Cecrops shall be 
taken, Zeus grants to Athena that the wooden walls alone shall 
remain unconquered, to defend you and your children.” The 
oracle was believed to be, as was declared, "firm as adamant.” 
But there were various opinions as to what was meant by the 
" wooden walls.” Some thought the Pythian priestess directed the 
Athenians to seek refuge in the forests on the mountains ; others, 
that the oracle meant they should defend the Acropolis, which in 
early times had been surrounded with a palisade ; but Themistocles 
(who it is thought may have himself prompted the oracle) con¬ 
tended that the ships were plainly indicated. 

The last interpretation was acted upon. All the soldiers of 
Attica were crowded upon the vessels of the fleet at Salamis. The 
aged men, with the women and children, were carried out of the 
country to different places of safety. All the towns of Attica, with 
the capital, were thus abandoned to the conquerors. A few days 
later the Persians entered the deserted plain, and burned the 
empty towns. The revered temples of the citadel of Athens were 
plundered and given to the flames. Sardis was avenged. 

143. The Naval Battle of Salamis (480 b.c.). Just off the coast 
of Attica lies the island of Salamis. Here lay the Greek fleet, 
awaiting the Persians. Xerxes, deceived by Themistocles respect¬ 
ing the state of things among the Greek allies, ordered an im¬ 
mediate attack. From a lofty throne upon the shore he himself 
overlooked the scene and watched the result. The Persian fleet 
was broken to pieces and two hundred of the ships destroyed. 

The blow was decisive. Xerxes, fearing that treachery might 
destroy the Hellespontine bridges, instantly dispatched a hundred 
ships to protect them; and then, leaving Mardonius with a large 


§ 144] MEMORIALS AND TROPHIES OF THE WAR 91 

force to retrieve the disaster of Salamis, the monarch with a strong 
escort made a hasty retreat into Asia. The following year, in a 
memorable battle known as the battle of Plataea, Mardonius was 
slain and his army virtually annihilated. Soon all European 
Greece, together with the Hellespont and the ^Egean islands, 
was, in the phrase of Herodotus, "restored to Grecian freedom.” 

144. Memorials and Trophies of the War. The glorious issue 
of the war caused an outburst of joy and exultation throughout 
Greece. Poets, artists, and orators vied with one another in com¬ 
memorating the deeds of the heroes whose valor had averted the 
impending peril. The dramatist .Eschylus, who had fought at 
Marathon and perhaps at Salamis and Plataea, erected an eternal 
monument in literature in his Persians, which, eight years after 
the battle, was presented at Athens before twenty thousand specta¬ 
tors, many of whom had had part in the fight; and the great artist 
Polygnotus painted on the walls of a public porch at Athens the 
battle of Marathon. In truth, the great literature and art of the 
golden age of Athens were an imperishable memorial of the war. 

Nor did the pious Greeks think that the marvelous deliverance 
had been effected without the intervention of the gods in their 
behalf. To the temple at Delphi was gratefully consecrated a 
tenth of the immense spoils in gold and silver from the field of 
Plataea; and upon the Acropolis at Athens was erected a colossal 
statue of Athena, made from the brazen arms gathered from the 
field at Marathon, while within the sanctuary of the goddess were 
placed the broken cables of the Hellespontine bridges, at once a 
proud trophy of victory and a signal illustration of the divine 
punishment that had befallen the impious attempt of the bar¬ 
barians to lay a yoke upon the sacred waters of the Hellespont. 

References. Plutarch, The??iistocles and Aristides. Aeschylus, The 
Persians (a historical drama which celebrates the victory of Salamis). 
Curtius, E., vol. ii, pp. 135-352. Grote, G. (ten-volume ed.), vol. iii, pp. 399- 
521 ; vol. iv, pp. 1-294. Holm, A., vol. i, chaps, xxiii, xxiv ; vol. ii, chaps, i-vi. 
Abbott, E., vol. ii, chaps, i-v. Cox, G. W., The Greeks and the Pet'sians. 
Creasy, E. S., Decisive Battles of the World , chap, i, " The Battle of Mara¬ 
thon.” Hopkinson, L. W., Greek Leaders, pp. 19-36, " Themistocles.” Church, 
A. J., Pictures from Greek Life and Story , chaps, iii-viii (juvenile). 


CHAPTER XVI 


THE ATHENIAN EMPIRE 

145. The Formation of the Confederacy of Delos (477 b.c.). 

Soon after the expulsion of the Persians from Greece the Ionian 
states, in order that they might be able to carry on more effectively 
the work to which they had set their hands, namely, the liberating 
of the Greek cities yet in the power of the Persians, formed a 
league known as the Confederacy of Delos. Sparta and her 
Peloponnesian allies were excluded from the league on account of 
the treachery of the Spartan Pausanias, who had been in command 
of the allied fleet. The league was a free association of independent 
and equal states, about two hundred and sixty in number. Athens 
was to be the head of the confederacy. Matters of common con¬ 
cern were to be in the hands of a congress convened yearly in the 
sacred island of Delos and composed of delegates from all the cities. 

At Delos, also, in the temple of Apollo, was to be kept the 
common treasure chest, to which each state was to make contri¬ 
bution according to its ability. What proportion of the ships and 
money should be contributed by the several states for carrying 
out the purposes of the union was left at first entirely to the 
decision of Aristides, such was the confidence all possessed in his 
fairness and incorruptible integrity; and so long as he retained 
control of the matter, none of the allies ever had cause for 
complaint. 

The formation of this Delian League constitutes a prominent 
landmark in Grecian history. It meant not simply the transfer 
from Sparta to Athens of leadership in the maritime affairs of 
Hellas. It meant that all the earlier promises of Panhellenic union 
had come to naught. It meant, since the Peloponnesian Con¬ 
federacy still continued to exist, that henceforth Hellas was to be 
a house divided against itself. 


92 



Fig. 38. T. he Piraeus and the Long Walls of Athens. (A restoration by Thiersch) 























§ 146] DELIAN LEAGUE BECOMES AN EMPIRE 


93 


146. The Athenians convert the Delian League into an 
Empire. The Confederacy of Delos laid the basis of the imperial 
power of Athens. The Athenians misused their authority as 
leaders of the league, and gradually, during the interval between 
the formation of the union and the beginning of the Peloponnesian 
War, reduced their allies to the condition of tributaries and subjects. 

Athens transformed the league into an empire in the following 
manner. The contributions assessed by Aristides upon the dif¬ 
ferent members of the confederation consisted of ships for the 
larger states and of money payments for the smaller ones. From 
the first, Athens attended to this assessment matter, and saw to 
it that each member of the league made its proper contribution. 

After a while, some of the cities preferring to make a money 
payment in lieu of ships, Athens accepted the commutation, and 
then, building the ships herself, added them to her own navy. 
Thus the confederates disarmed themselves and armed their master. 

Very soon the restraints which Athens imposed upon her allies 
became irksome, and they began to refuse, one after another, to 
pay the assessment in any form. Naxos, one of the Cyclades, was 
the fir$t island to secede from the league (466 b.c.). But Athens 
had no idea of admitting any such doctrine of state rights, and 
with her powerful navy forced the Naxians to remain within the 
union and to pay an increased tribute. 

What happened in the case of Naxos happened in the case of 
other members of the confederation. By the year 449 b.c. only 
three of the island members of the league—Lesbos, Chios, and 
Samos—still retained their independence. They alone of all the 
former allies did not pay tribute. Even before the date last named 
the Athenians had transferred the common treasury from Delos 
to Athens, and, diverting the tribute from its original purpose, 
were beginning to spend it not in the prosecution of war against 
the barbarians but in the carrying on of home enterprises, as 
though the treasure were their own revenue. About this time also 
the congress probably ceased to exist. 

Thus what had been simply a voluntary confederation of 
sovereign and independent cities was converted into what was 


94 


THE ATHENIAN EMPIRE 


[§ 147 


practically an absolute monarchy, with the Attic democracy as 
the imperial master. Thus did Athens become a "tyrant city.” 

147. Cimon and Pericles. Two of the most prominent of the 
Athenian leaders at this time were Cimon and Pericles. Cimon, 
a successful admiral, was the leader of a party, aristocratic in its 
sympathies, whose policy was the maintenance in Greece of a 

dual headship, Sparta being al¬ 
lowed leadership on land and 
Athens leadership on the sea. 

Cimon was opposed by Pericles 
who believed that such a double 
leadership was impracticable. The 
aim of his policy was to make 
Athens supreme not only on the 
sea but also on the land. The 
popularity of Cimon at last de¬ 
clined and he was ostracized. The 
fall of Cimon gave Pericles a free 
hand in the carrying out of his 
ambitious policy. 

148. Construction of the Long 
Walls. As a part of his mari¬ 
time policy, Pericles persuaded the 
Athenians to push to completion 
what were known as the Long 
Walls, which united Athens to the 
port of Piraeus (see Fig. 38). By means of these great ram¬ 
parts Athens and her principal port, with the intervening land, 
were converted into a vast fortified district, capable in time of wai 
of holding the entire population of Attica. With her communication 
with the sea thus secured, and with a powerful navy at her com¬ 
mand, Athens could bid defiance to her foes on sea and land. 

149. The Age of Pericles ( 445-431 b.c.). The period during 
which the influence of Pericles was supreme in Athens is known 
as the Age of Pericles. It was the golden age of Athens. The 
people were at this period the source and fountain of all power. 



Fig. 39. Pericles 






§ 150] 


THE DICASTERIES 


95 


Every matter which concerned Athens and her empire was dis¬ 
cussed and decided by the popular assembly. Never before in 
the history of the world had any people enjoyed such unrestricted 
political liberty as did the citizens of Athens at this time, and 
never before were any people, through so intimate a knowledge 
of public affairs, so well fitted to take part in the administration of 
government. As a rule, every citizen was qualified to hold public 
office. At all events the Athenians acted upon this assumption, as is 
shown by their extremely democratic practice of fdling all the pub¬ 
lic offices, save a few in the army and navy, by the use of the lot. 

150 . The Dicasteries. A characteristic feature of the Athens 
of Pericles was the great popular law courts or tribunals. Each 
year there were chosen by lot from those citizens who wished to 
serve on juries six thousand persons. One thousand were held in 
reserve; the remaining five thousand were divided into ten sections 
of five hundred each. These divisions were called dicasteries , and 
the members dicasts , or jurymen. The usual number sitting on any 
given case was between two hundred and four hundred. Some¬ 
times, however, when an important case was to be heard, the jury 
would number two thousand or even more. 

There was an immense amount of law business brought before 
these courts: for they not only tried all cases arising between the 
citizens of Athens, but attended also to a large part of the law 
business of the numerous cities of Athens’s great empire. The 
decision of the jurors was final. The judgment of a dicastery was 
never reversed or annulled. 

151 . Pericles adorns Athens with Public Buildings. Athens 
having achieved such a position as she now held, it was the idea 
of Pericles that the Athenians should so adorn their city that it 
should be a fitting symbol of the power and glory of their empire. 
Nor was it difficult for him to persuade his art-loving countrymen 
to embellish their city with those masterpieces of architecture that 
in their ruins still excite the admiration of the world. 

The most noteworthy of the Periclean structures were grouped 
upon the Acropolis. Here, as the gateway to the sacred inclosure 
of the citadel, were erected the magnificent Propylaea, which have 


96 


THE ATHENIAN EMPIRE 


[§ 152 


served as a model for similar structures since the time of Pericles. 
Here also was raised the beautiful Parthenon, sacred to the vir¬ 
gin goddess Athena. The celebrated sculptures of the frieze were 
designed by Phidias. Near the temple stood the colossal bronze 
statue of Athena,—made, it is said, from the spoils of Marathon, 
—-whose glittering spear point was a beacon to the mariner 
sailing in from Sunium. 

The Athenians obtained a considerable portion of the money 
needed for the prosecution of their great architectural and art 
undertakings from the treasury of the Delian Confederacy 
The allies naturally declaimed bitterly against this proceeding, 
complaining that Athens with their money was "adorning herself 
as a # vain woman decks her body with gay ornaments.” But 
Pericles’ answer to these charges was that the money was contrib¬ 
uted to the end that the cities of the league should be protected 
against the Persians, and that so long as the Athenians kept the 
enemy at a distance they had a right to use the money as 
they pleased. 

152. Strength and Weakness of the Athenian Empire. Under 
Pericles Athens had become the most powerful naval state in the 
world. In one of his last speeches Pericles says to his fellow- 
citizens: "There is not now a king, there is not any nation in 
the universal world, able to withstand that navy which at this 
juncture you can launch out to sea.” And this was no empty 
boast. The Aegean had become an Athenian lake. Its islands and 
coast lands formed practically an Athenian empire. The revenue 
ships of Athens collected tribute from two hundred Greek cities. 
It seemed almost as though the union of the cities of Hellas was 
to be effected on an imperial basis through the energy and achieve¬ 
ments of the Athenians. 

But the most significant feature of this new imperial power was 
the remarkable combination of material and intellectual resources 
which it exhibited. Never before had there been such a union 
of the material and the intellectual elements of civilization at 
the seat of empire. Literature and art had been carried to the 
utmost perfection possible to human genius. 



Pig. 4°. I me Acropolis of Athens (A restoration by G . Rehlender ) 











































































, 















. • 











§ 152] CHARACTER OF THE ATHENIAN EMPIRE 97 

But there were elements of weakness in the splendid imperial 
structure. The Athenian Empire was destined to be short-lived 
because the principles upon which it rested were in opposition 
to the deepest instinct of the Greek race,— to that sentiment of 
local patriotism which invested each individual city with political 
sovereignty (sect. 97). The so-called confederates were the sub¬ 
jects of Athens. To her they paid tribute. To her courts they 
were dragged for trial. 1 Naturally the subject cities of her em¬ 
pire regarded Athens as the destroyer of Hellenic liberties, and 
watched impatiently for the first favorable moment to revolt and 
throw off the yoke that she had imposed upon them. Hence the 
Athenian Empire rested upon a foundation of sand. 

Had Athens, instead of enslaving her confederates of the Delian 
League, only been able to find some way of retaining them as 
allies in an equal union,— a great and perhaps impossible task 
under the then existing conditions of the Hellenic world,—as 
head of the federated Greek race she might have secured for 
Hellas the sovereignty of the Mediterranean, and the history of 
Rome might have ended with the first century of the republic. 

Illustrations of these weaknesses, as well as of the strength of 
the Athenian Empire, will be afforded by the great struggle be¬ 
tween Athens and Sparta known as the Peloponnesian War, the 
causes and chief incidents of which we shall next rehearse. 

References. Plutarch, Aristides and Pericles. Curtius, E., vol. ii, pp. 353— 
641. Grote, G. (ten-volume ed.), vol. iv, pp. 330-533. Abbott, E., vol. ii, 
pp. 243-415 ; vol. iii, chaps, i, ii. Bury, J. B., History of Greece , chaps, viii, ix. 

- Cox, G. W., The Athenian Empire and Lives of Athenian Statesmen. Lloyd, 
W. W., The Ape of Pericles , 2 vols. ITopktnson, L. W., Greek Leaders , pp. 37- 
77, " rericles.” Butler, II. C., The Stoiy of Athens, chap. vii. Abbott, E., 
Pericles and the Golden Ape of Athens, chaps, x-xviii. Grant, A. J., Greece in 
the Age of Pericles. Tucker, T. G., Life in Ancient Athens. 

1 The subject cities were allowed to maintain only their lower courts of justice; all 
cases of importance, as we have seen (sect. 150), were carried to Athens, and there 
decided in the Attic tribunals. 


CHAPTER XVII 


THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR; THE SPARTAN AND THE 

THEBAN SUPREMACY 

I. THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR ( 431-404 b.c.) 

153. The Beginning of the War. Before the end of the life 
of Pericles the growing jealousy between Ionian Athens and Dorian 
Sparta and her allies broke out in the long and calamitous struggle 
known as the Peloponnesian War. One immediate cause of the 
war was the blockade by the Athenians of Potidaea, in Chalcidice. 
This was a Corinthian colony, but it was a member of the 
Delian League, and was now being chastised by Athens for at¬ 
tempted secession. Corinth had endeavored to lend aid to her 
daughter, but had been worsted in an engagement with the 
Athenians. 

With affairs in this shape, Corinth, supported by other states 
that like herself had causes of complaint against Athens, appealed 
to Sparta, as the head of the Dorian alliance, for aid and justice. 
The Spartans, after listening to the deputies of both sides, decided 
that the Athenians had been guilty of injustice, and declared for 
war. The resolution of the Spartans was indorsed by the Pelopon¬ 
nesian Confederation, and apparently approved by the Delphian 
oracle, which, in response to an inquiry of the Spartans as to 
what would be the issue of the proposed undertaking, assured 
them that "they would gain the victory, if they fought with all 
their might.” 

154. The Peloponnesians ravage Attica (431 b.c.). A Pelo¬ 
ponnesian army was soon collected at the Isthmus, ready for a 
campaign against Athens. With invasion imminent, the inhabit¬ 
ants of the hamlets and scattered farmhouses of Attica abandoned 

their homes and sought shelter behind the defenses of the capital. 

98 


§ 155] 


FUNERAL ORATION OF PERICLES 


99 


Into the plain thus deserted the Peloponnesians marched, and 
ravaged the country far and near. From the walls of the city the 
Athenians could see the flames of their burning houses, which re¬ 
called to the old men the sight they had witnessed from the island 
of Salamis just forty-nine years before, at the time of the Per¬ 
sian invasion. The failure of provisions finally compelled the 
Peloponnesians to withdraw from the country, and the contingents 
of the different cities scattered to their homes. 

155. Funeral Oration of Pericles. It was the custom of the 
Athenians to bury with public and imposing ceremonies the bodies 
of those slain in battle. After the burial of the remains, some per¬ 
son chosen by his fellow-citizens on account of his special fitness 
for the service delivered an oration over the dead, extolling their 
deeds and exhorting the living to an imitation of their virtues. 

It was during the winter following the campaign we have men¬ 
tioned that the Athenians celebrated the funeral ceremonies of 
those who had fallen thus far in the war. Pericles was. chosen to 
give the oration on this occasion. This funeral speech, as reported 
by Thucydides, 1 is one of the most valuable memorials preserved 
to us from antiquity. The speaker took advantage of the occa¬ 
sion to describe the institutions to which Athens owed her great¬ 
ness, and to picture the glories of the imperial city for which the 
heroes they lamented had died. He praised the Athenian govern¬ 
ment, in which all the citizens, rich and poor alike, had part. He 
praised, too, Athens’s military system, in which the citizen was 
not sacrificed to the soldier, as at Sparta; and yet Athens was 
alone a match for Sparta and all her allies. He extolled the 
intellectual, moral, and social virtues of the Athenians, which 
were fostered by their free institutions, and declared their city 
to be "the school of Hellas” and the model for all other cities. 


1 Respecting the speeches which Thucydides introduces so frequently in his 
narrative, he himself says: "As to the speeches which were made either before or 
during the war, it was hard for me, and for others who reported them to me, to 
recollect the exact words. I have therefore put into the mouth of each speaker the 
sentiments proper to the occasion, expressed as I thought he would be likely to express 
them, while at the same time I endeavored, as nearly as I could, to give the general 
purport of what was actually said” (Jowett’s Thucydides, i. 15). 


100 


THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR 


[§ 156 


She would never need a Homer to perpetuate her memory, 
because she herself had set up everywhere eternal monuments 


of her greatness. "Such is the city, 



the speaker exclaimed im¬ 
pressively, " for whose sake 
these men nobly fought and 
died; they could not bear 
the thought that she might 
be taken from them; and 
every one of us who sur¬ 
vive should gladly toil on 
her behalf.” 

Then followed words of 
tribute to the valor and 
self-devotion of the dead, 
whose sepulchers and in¬ 
scriptions were not the 
graves and the memorial 
stones of the cemetery,— 
" for the whole earth vs the 
sepulcher of famous men,” 
and the memorials of them 
are "graven not on stone 
but in the hearts of man¬ 
kind.” Finally, with words 
of comfort for the relatives 
Fig. 41. The So-Called Mourning of the dead, the orator dis- 
Atiiena. 2 (From a photograph) missed the assembly to 

their homes. 1 

156. The Plague at Athens ( 430-429 b.c.). Upon the return 
of the next campaigning season the Peloponnesians broke once more 
into Attica and ravaged the land anew. The walls of Athens were 


1 Thucydides , ii. 35-46, for the whole oration. 

2 A bas-relief recently excavated on the Acropolis of Athens. As to the possible 
connection of this relief with the funeral oration of Pericles, Dr. Waldstein says: 
"Though I do not mean to say that the inscription which it surmounted referred 
immediately to those who had fallen in the campaign of 431 b.c., I still feel that the 
most perfect counterpart in literature is the famous funeral oration of Pericles as 
recorded by Thucydides.” 


















§ 157] 


ALCIBIADES 


IOI 


unassailable by the hostile army; but unfortunately they were no 
defense against a more terrible foe. A pestilence broke out in 
the crowded city and added its horrors to the already unbearable 
calamities of war. The mortality was frightful. One fourth of the 
population of the city was swept away. In the' third year of 
the war the plague reappeared at Athens. Pericles, who had been 
the very soul and life of Athens dur¬ 
ing all these dark days, fell a vic¬ 
tim to the disease. 

After the death of x'ericles the 
leadership of affairs at Athens fell 
to a great degree into the hands of 
demagogues. The mob element got 
control of the Ecclesia, so that 
hereafter we shall find many of its 
measures marked neither by virtue 
nor by wisdom. 

157. Alcibiades. About midway 
in the long war—it lasted, with 
intervals of nominal peace, twenty- 
seven years—there came into promi¬ 
nence at Athens a new leader of the demos, who played a 
most conspicuous part, not only in Athenian but also in Hellenic 
affairs, from this time on to near the close of the war. This was 
Alcibiades, a young man of noble lineage and of aristocratic as¬ 
sociations. He was versatile, brilliant, and resourceful, but un¬ 
scrupulous, reckless, and profligate. He was a pupil of Socrates, 
but he failed to follow the counsels of his teacher. His astonishing 
escapades kept all Athens talking, yet seemed only to attach the 
people more closely to him, for he possessed all those personal 
traits which make men popular idols. His influence over the 
democracy was unlimited. He was able to carry through the 
Ecclesia almost any measure that it pleased him to advocate. 

The more prudent of the Athenians were filled with apprehen¬ 
sion for the future of the state under such guidance. The noted 
misanthrope Timon gave expression to this feeling when, after 



Fig. 42. Alcibiades 




102 


THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR 


[§ 158 


Alcibiades had secured the assent of the popular assembly to one 
of his impolitic measures, he said to him: "Go on, my brave boy, 
and prosper; for your prosperity will bring on the ruin of all this 
crowd/’ And it did, as we shall see. 

158. The Sicilian Expedition ( 415-413 B.C.). The most pros¬ 
perous enterprise of Alcibiades, in the Timonian sense, was the 
inciting of the Athenians to undertake an expedition against the 
Dorian city of Syracuse, in Sicily. The resolution to engage in 
the tremendous enterprise seems to have been taken lightly by the 
Athenians, which was quite in keeping with their usual way of 
doing things. The vastness of the armament needed seemed to 
captivate their imagination. The expedition further presented 
itself to the ardent imagination of the youth as a sort of pleasure 
and sight-seeing excursion among the wonders of the land of the 
"Far West.” And so it came about that, in a special meeting of 
the Ecclesia, the assembly, almost without a dissenting voice, 
voted for the fateful adventure. 

An immense fleet was carefully equipped and manned. 1 Anx¬ 
iously did those remaining behind watch the departing ships until 
they were lost to sight. Could the anxious watchers have foreseen 
the fate of the splendid armament, their anxiety would have passed 
into despair. "Athens itself was sailing out of the Piraeus, never 
to return.” 

Scarcely had the expedition arrived at Sicily before Alcibiades, who 
was one of thegeneralsin command of the armament, was summoned 
back to Athens to answer a charge of impiety. Fearing to trust him¬ 
self in the hands of his enemies at Athens, he fled to Sparta, and 
there, by traitorous counsel, did all in his power to ruin the very 
expedition he had planned. The surest way, he told the Spartans, 
in which to wreck the plans of the Athenians was to send to Sicily at 
once a force of heavy-armed men, and above all a good Spartan gen¬ 
eral, who alone would be worth a whole army. The Spartans acted 
upon this advice and sent to Sicily their ablest general, Gylippus, 
with instructions to push the war there with the utmost vigor. 

1 Tt consisted of one hundred and thirty-four costly triremes, bearing thirty-six 
thousand soldiers and sailors. 


§ 159] 


THE FALL OF ATHENS 


103 


The affairs of the Athenians in Sicily at just this time were 
prospering greatly. But the arrival of Gylippus changed everything 
at once. After some severe fighting, in which the Athenians lost 
heavily, they resolved to withdraw their forces from the island 
while retreat by the sea was still open to them. 

Just as the ships were about to weigh anchor, there occurred 
an eclipse of the moon. Nicias, the general in chief command, 
unfortunately was a superstitious man, having full faith in omens 
and divination. He sought the advice of his soothsayers. They 
pronounced the portent an unfavorable one, and advised that the 
retreat be delayed thirty-seven days. Never did a reliance upon 
omens more completely undo a people. The delay was fatal. 

Further disaster and a failure of provisions finally convinced the 
Athenians that they must without longer delay fight their way out 
by sea or by land. But already it was too late. The attempt to 
force their way through the enemy’s fleet in the harbor failed 
dismally. There was now no course open save retreat by land. 
Making such preparations as they could for their march, they 
set out. Pursued and harassed by the Syracusans, the fleeing 
multitude was practically annihilated. The prisoners, about seven 
thousand in number, were crowded in deep, open stone quarries 
around Syracuse, where hundreds soon died of exposure and star¬ 
vation. Most of the wretched survivors were finally sold as slaves. 
The tragedy of the Sicilian expedition was ended. 

159. The Fall of Athens (404 B.C.). With most admirable 
courage the Athenians, after the great disaster in Sicily, set to 
work to retrieve their seemingly irretrievable fortune. Forgetting 
and forgiving the past, they recalled Alcibiades and gave him com¬ 
mand of the army, thereby well illustrating what the poet Aris¬ 
tophanes said respecting the disposition of the Athenians toward 
the spoiled favorite,—"They love, they hate, but cannot live 
without him.” 

Alcibiades gained some splendid victories for Athens. But he 
could not undo the evil he had done. He had ruined Athens be¬ 
yond redemption by any human power. The struggle grew more 
and more hopeless. Finally, at vEgospotami, on the Hellespont, 


104 


THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR 


[§ 160 


the Athenian fleet was surprised and captured by the Spartan 
general Lysander (405 b.c.). The native Athenians, to the number 
of four thousand it is said, were put to death, the usual rites of 
burial being denied their bodies. Among the few Athenian vessels 
that escaped capture was the state ship Paralus, which hastened 
to Athens with the tidings of the terrible misfortune. It arrived in 
the nighttime, and from the Piraeus the awful news, published by 
a despairing wail, spread up the Long Walls into the upper city. 
"That night,” says Xenophon, "no one slept.” 

Besieged by sea and land, Athens was soon forced to surrender. 
Some of the allies insisted upon a total destruction of the city. 
The Spartans, however, with apparent magnanimity, declared 
that they would never consent thus "to put out one of the eyes 
of Greece.” The real motive of the Spartans in sparing the city 
was their fear lest, with Athens blotted out, Thebes or Corinth 
should become too powerful, and the leadership of Sparta be 
thereby endangered. The final resolve was that the lives of the 
Athenians should be spared, but that they should be required to 
demolish their Long Walls and those of the Piraeus, to give up all 
their ships save twelve, and to bind themselves to do Sparta’s 
bidding by sea and land. The Athenians were forced to surrender . 
on these hard conditions. 

The long war was now over. The dominion of the imperial city 
of Athens was at an end, and the great days of Greece were past. 

160. The Results of the War. Greece never recovered from 
the effects of the war which had destroyed so large a part of her 
population. Athens was merely the wreck of her former self. 
The harbor of the Piraeus, once crowded with ships, was now 
empty. The population of the capital had been terribly thinned. 
Things were just the reverse now of what they were at the time 
of the Persian invasion, when, with Athens in ruins, Themistocles 
at Salamis, taunted with being a man without a city, could truth¬ 
fully declare that Athens was there on the sea in her ships. Now 
the real Athens was gone; only the empty shell remained. 

Not Athens alone, but all Hellas, bore the marks of the cruel 
war. Sites once covered with pleasant villages or flourishing towns 


§ 161] 


THE SPARTAN SUPREMACY 


105 


were now plough and pasture land. The Greek world had sunk 
many degrees in morality, while the vigor and productiveness of 
the intellectual and artistic life of Hellas were impaired beyond 
recovery. The achievements of the Greek intellect in the century 
following the war were, it is true, wonderful; but these triumphs 
merely show, we may believe, what the Hellenic mind would have 
done for art and general culture had it been permitted, unchecked, 
and under the favoring and inspiring conditions of liberty and 
self-government, to disclose all that was latent in it. 


II. THE SPARTAN AND THE THEBAN SUPREMACY 

161. Character of the Spartan Supremacy. For just one 
generation following the Peloponnesian. War (404-371 b.c.) Sparta 
held the leadership of the Greek states. Throughout that struggle 
she had maintained that her only purpose in warring against 
Athens was to regain for the Greek cities the liberty of which she 
had deprived them. But no sooner was the power of Athens broken 
than Sparta herself began to play the tyrant. The outcome of her 
oppressive tyranny we shall notice directly. 

162. The Expedition of the Ten Thousand Greeks ( 401 - 
400 B.C.). One of the most memorable episodes of the period of 
Spartan supremacy was the famous expedition of the Ten Thou¬ 
sand Greeks. Cyrus, brother of the Persian king Artaxerxes II 
and satrap in Asia Minor, feeling that he had been unjustly ex¬ 
cluded from the throne by his brother, secretly planned to de¬ 
throne him. From various quarters he gathered an army of over 
a hundred thousand barbarians and about thirteen thousand Greek 
mercenaries. Setting out from Sardis, he had marched through 
Asia Minor and across the Mesopotamian plains, thus penetrating 
to the very heart of the Persian Empire, before, at Cunaxa in 
Babylonia, his farther advance was disputed by Artaxerxes with 
an immense army. In the battle which here followed, the splendid 
conduct of the Greeks won the day for their leader. Cyrus, 
however, was slain; and the Greek generals, lured to a con¬ 
ference, were treacherously seized and put to death. 


106 THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR [§ 163 

The Greeks, in a hurried night meeting, chose new generals to 
lead them back to their homes. One of these was Xenophon, the 
popular historian of the expedition. Now commenced one of the 
most memorable retreats in all history. After a most harassing 
march over the hot plains of the Tigris and the icy passes of 
Armenia, the survivors reached the Black Sea, the abode of sister 
Greek colonies. 

The march of the Ten Thousand is regarded as one of the 
most remarkable military exploits of antiquity. Its historical 
significance is owing to the fact that it paved the way for the 
later expedition of Alexander the Great. This it did by revealing 
to the Greeks the decayed state of the Persian Empire, and showing 
how feeble was the resistance which it could offer to the march 
of an army of disciplined soldiers. 

163 . The Condemnation and Death of Socrates (399 b.c.). 
While Xenophon was yet away on his expedition there happened 
in his native city one of the saddest tragedies in history. This 
was the trial and condemnation to death by the Athenians of 
their fellow-citizen Socrates, the greatest moral teacher of pagan 
antiquity. The double charge upon which he was condemned was 
worded as follows: "Socrates is guilty of crime,— first, for not 
worshiping the gods whom the city worships, but in introducing 
new divinities of his own; next, for corrupting the youth.” The 
trial was before a dicastery or citizen court (sect. 150) composed 
of over five hundred jurors, and the sentence of death was pro¬ 
nounced by a majority vote. 

After his condemnation Socrates was led to prison, and there 
remained for about thirty days before the execution of the 
sentence. This period Socrates spent in serene converse with his 
friends upon those lofty themes that had occupied his thoughts 
during all his life. When at last the hour for his departure had 
arrived, he bade his friends farewell, and then calmly drank the 
cup of poison. 

164 . The Battle of Leuctra (371 b.c.). Throughout the period 
of her supremacy Sparta continued to deal most tyrannically 
with the other Greek cities. One of her worst crimes was the 


§ 164] 


THE BATTLE OF LEUCTRA 


107 


treacherous seizure of the citadel of Thebes and the placing of a 
Spartan garrison in it. All Greece stood aghast at this perfidious 
and high-handed act, and looked to see some awful misfortune 
befall Sparta as a retribution. 

And misfortune came speedily enough, and not single-handed. 
The Spartan garrison was driven out of the citadel by an uprising 
of the Thebans. A Spartan army was soon in Boeotia. The 
Thebans met the invaders at Leuctra. The Spartans had no other 
thought than that they should gain an easy victory. But the mili¬ 
tary genius of the Theban commander, Epaminondas, had pre¬ 
pared for Hellas a startling surprise. Hitherto the Greeks had 
fought drawn up in extended and comparatively thin opposing 
lines, not more than twelve ranks deep. The Spartans at Leuctra 
formed their line in the usual way. Epaminondas, on the other 
hand, massed his best troops in a solid column, that is in a 
phalanx, fifty deep, on the left of his battle line, the rest being 
drawn up in the ordinary extended line. With all ready for the 
attack, the phalanx was set in motion first. It ploughed through 
the thin line of the enemy "as the beak of a ship ploughs through 
a wave,”—and the day was won. Of the seven hundred Spartans in 
the fight four hundred were killed. It was the first time that a 
Spartan army with its king had been fairly beaten in a great 
battle by an enemy inferior in numbers. The Spartan forces at 
Thermopylae headed by their king had, it is true, been annihilated, 
—but annihilation is not defeat. 

The manner in which the news of the overwhelming calamity 
was received at Sparta affords a striking illustration of Spartan 
discipline and self-control. It so happened that when the mes¬ 
senger arrived the Spartans were celebrating a festival. The 
Ephors would permit no interruption of the entertainment. They 
merely sent lists of the fallen to their families, and ordered that 
the women should make no lamentation nor show any signs of 
grief. "The following day,” says Xenophon, "those who had 
lost relatives in the battle appeared on the streets with cheerful 
faces, while those whose relatives had escaped, if they appeared in 
public at all, went about with sad and dejected looks.” When 


io8 


THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR 


[§ 165 


we contrast this scene at Sparta with that at Athens upon the 
night of the receipt of the news of the disaster of ^Egospotami 
(sect. 159), we are impressed with the wide difference in spirit or 
temperament between the Athenian and the Spartan. 

165 . The Theban Supremacy (371-362 b.c. ). From the vic¬ 
tory of Leuctra dates the short but brilliant period of Theban 
supremacy. The year after that battle Epaminondas led an army 
into the Peloponnesus to aid the Arcadians against Sparta. Laconia 
was. ravaged, and for the first time Spartan women saw the smoke 
of the camp fires of an'enemy. 

But, moved by jealousy of the rapidly growing power of Thebes, 
Athens now formed an alliance with her old rival Sparta against 
her. Three times more did Epaminondas lead an army into the 
Peloponnesus. Upon his last expedition he fought with the 
Spartans and Athenians the great battle of Mantinea, in Arcadia. 
On this memorable field Epaminondas led the Thebans once more 
to victory; but he himself was slain, and with him fell the hopes 
and power of Thebes (362 b.c.). 

All the chief cities of Greece now lay in a state of exhaustion or 
of helpless isolation. Sparta had destroyed the empire of Athens; 
Thebes had broken the dominion of Sparta, but had exhausted 
herself in the effort. There was now no city energetic, resourceful, 
unbroken in spirit and strength, such as was Athens at the time 
of the Persian Wars, to act as leader and champion of the Greek 
states. Yet never was there greater need of such leadership in 
Hellas than at just this moment; for the Macedonian monarchy 
was now rising in the north and threatening the independence of 
all Greece. 

References. Plutarch, Alcibiades. Thucydides, ii, 35-46 (the funeral 
oration of Pericles). Curtius, E., vols. iii, iv. Grote, G. (ten-volume ed.), 
vols. v-viii. Abbott, E., vol. iii, chaps, iii-xii. Holm, A., vol. ii, chaps, xxi- 
xxviii; vol. iii, chaps, i-xiii. Bury, J. B., I/istoiy of Greece , chaps, x—xiv. Cox, 
G. W., Lives of Greek Statesmen , "Demosthenes” and " Nikias.” Creasy, 
E. S., Decisive Battles of the IVorld, chap, ii, " Defeat of the Athenians at 
Syracuse, b.c. 413.” Sankey, C., The Spartan and Theban Supremacies. 
Tucker, T. G., Life in Ancient Athens , chaps, x-xiv. Hopkinson, L. \V., 
Greek Leaders (" Alcibiades,” " Socrates,” and " Epaminondas”). 


CHAPTER XVIII 


ALEXANDER THE GREAT 
(336-323 B.C.) 

166 . The Macedonians and their Rulers. Macedonia was a 
country lying north of the Cambunian Mountains and back of 
Chalcidice (see map, p. 54). The people were for the most part 
mountaineers still in the tribal state. 1 They were Aryans in speech 
and close kin to the Greeks, but since they did not speak pure 
Greek and were backward in culture, they were looked upon as 
barbarians by their more refined city kinsmen of the South. The 
ruling race in the country, however, claimed to be of genuine 
Hellenic stock, and this claim had been allowed by the Greeks, 
who had permitted them to appear as contestants in the Olympian 
games,—a privilege, it will be recalled, accorded only to those 
who could prove pure Hellenic ancestry. 

167 . Philip of Macedon. Macedonia first rose to importance 
under Philip II (359-336 b.c.), generally known as Philip of 
Macedon. He was a man of preeminent ability. The art of war 
he had learned in youth as a hostage-pupil of Epaminondas of 
Thebes. The "Macedonian phalanx,” 2 which he is said to have 
originated, and which holds some such place in the military his¬ 
tory of Macedonia as the "legion” holds in that of Rome, was 
simply a modification of the Theban phalanx that won the day 
at Leuctra and again at Mantinea. 

With his kingdom settled and consolidated at home, Philip’s 
ambition led him to seek the leadership of the Greek states. 

1 There were, however, a few towns in Macedonia, of which /Egae and Pella, each of 
which was in turn the seat of the royal court, were of chief note. 

2 The phalanx was formed of soldiers drawn up sixteen files deep and armed with 
pikes so long that those of the first five ranks projected beyond the front of the 
column, thus opposing a perfect thicket of spears to the enemy. On level ground it 
was irresistible. 

T09 


no 


ALEXANDER THE GREAT 


[§ 168 



168 . Battle of Chaeronea (338 b.c.). Philip quickly extended 
his power over a large part of Thrace and the Greek cities of 
Chalcidice. He was on the way to make himself master of all 
Greece. Demosthenes at Athens was one of the few who seemed 

to understand the real designs of 
Philip. With all the energy of his 
wonderful eloquence he strove to stir 
up the Athenians to resist Philip’s en¬ 
croachments. He hurled against him 
his famous "Philippics,” speeches so 
filled with fierce denunciation that 
they have given name to all writings 
characterized by bitter criticism or 
violent invective. 

At length the Athenians and The¬ 
bans, aroused by the eloquence of 
Demosthenes and by some fresh en¬ 
croachments of Philip, united their 
forces, and met him upon the memo¬ 
rable field of Chaeronea in Boeotia. 
The battle was stubbornly fought, but 
finally went against the allies. The 
power and authority of Philip were 
now extended and acknowledged 
throughout Greece. 

169 . Philip’s Plan to invade 
Asia; his Death (336 b.c.). Soon 
after the battle of Chseronea, Philip 
convened at Corinth a council of the 
Greek states. His main object in 
calling the congress was to secure aid in an expedition for the 
conquest of the Persian Empire. The exploit of the Ten Thousand 
Greeks had shown the feasibility of such an undertaking (sect. 
162). The plan was indorsed by the congress. Every Greek city 
was to furnish a contingent for the army of invasion. Philip was 
chosen leader of the expedition. 


Fig. 43. Demosthenes 
(Vatican Museum) 

If thy power, Demosthenes, had 
been as great as thy spirit never 
had Hellas bowed before the 
Macedonian sword. — Plutarch 






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§ 170] 


THE YOUTH OF ALEXANDER 


hi 


All Greece was now astir with preparations for the great adven¬ 
ture. By the spring of the year 336 b.c. the expedition was 
ready to move. In the midst of all, Philip was assassinated, and 
his son Alexander succeeded to his place and power. 

170 . The Youth of Alexander. Alexander was only twenty 
years of age when he came to his father’s throne. Certain in¬ 
fluences under which the boy came in his earliest years left a 
permanent impress upon his mind and character. By his mother 
he was taught to trace his descent from the great Achilles, and was 
incited to emulate his exploits and to make 
him his model in all things. The Iliad , which 
recounts the deeds of that mythical hero, 
became the prince’s inseparable companion. 

After his mother’s influence, perhaps that 
of the philosopher Aristotle, whom Philip 
persuaded to become the tutor of the youth¬ 
ful Alexander, was the most formative. 

This great teacher implanted in the mind 
of the young prince a love of literature and 
philosophy, and through his inspiring com¬ 
panionship exercised over the eager, im¬ 
pulsive boy an influence for good which 
Alexander himself gratefully acknowledged 
in later years. 

171 . Alexander crosses the Hellespont; the Battle of the 
Granicus (334 b.c.). Alexander carried out his father’s scheme 
in regard to the Asiatic expedition.. In the spring of 334 b.c. he 
set out at the head of an army numbering about thirty-five thou¬ 
sand men for the conquest of the Persian Empire. Crossing the 
Hellespont, he met on the banks of the Granicus a Persian army, 
over which he gained a decisive victory. All Asia Minor now lay 
open to the invader, and soon practically all of its cities and tribes 
were brought to acknowledge the authority of the Macedonian. 1 



Fig. 44. Alexander 
the Great 
(Capitoline Museum) 


1 At Gordium, in Phrygia, Alexander performed an exploit which has given the 
world one of its favorite apothegms. In the temple at this place was a chariot to the 
pole of which a yoke was fastened by a curiously intricate knot. An oracle had been 



112 


ALEXANDER THE GREAT 


[§172 


172 . The Battle of Issus (333 b.c.). At the northeast corner 
of the Mediterranean lies the plain of Issus. Here Alexander met 
and defeated another great Persian army. The king himself 1 
escaped from the field, and hastened to his capital Susa to raise 
another army to oppose the march of the conqueror. 

173. Alexander in Egypt. With Syria and the cities of 
Phoenicia subject to his will, Alexander marched down into Egypt. 
The Egyptians made no resistance to him, but willingly exchanged 
masters. While in the country, Alexander founded at one of the 
mouths of the Nile a city named after himself Alexandria. The 
city became the meeting place of the East and the West. Its im¬ 
portance through many centuries attests the farsighted wisdom 
of its founder. 

A less worthy enterprise of the conqueror was his expedition to 
the. oasis of Siwah, located in the Libyan desert, where were a 
celebrated temple and oracle of Zeus Ammon. To gratify his 
vanity, to impress his new oriental subjects, and especially to 
qualify himself as the legitimate successor of the divine Pharaoh, 
Alexander desired to be declared of celestial descent. The priests 
of the temple, in accordance with the wish of the king, gave out 
that the oracle pronounced Alexander to be the son of Zeus and 
the destined ruler of the world. 

174 . The Battle of Arbela (331 b.c.). From Egypt Alexander 
retraced his steps to Syria and marched eastward. At Arbela r 
not far from the ancient Nineveh, his farther advance was dis¬ 
puted by Darius with an immense army. The Persian host was 
overthrown with enormous slaughter. Darius fled from the field, 
as he had done at Issus, and later was treacherously killed by 
an attendant. 

The battle of Arbela was one of the decisive combats of history. 
It marked the end of the long struggle between the East and the 
West, between Persia and Greece, and prepared the way for the 
spread of Hellenic civilization over all western Asia. 

spread abroad to the effect that whoever should untie the knot would become master of 
Asia. Alexander attempted the feat. Unable to loosen the knot, he drew his sword and 
cut it. Hence the phrase "cutting the Gordian knot,” — meaning a short way out of a 
difficulty. 1 Darius III (336-330 b.c.). 


§ 175] 


ALEXANDER AT BABYLON 


H3 

175 . Alexander at Babylon, Susa, and Persepolis. From the 
field of Arbela Alexander marched south to Babylon, which opened 
its gates to him without opposition. Susa was next entered by 
the conqueror. Here he seized incredible quantities of gold and 
silver ($57,000,000, it is said), the treasure of the Great King. 

From Susa Alexander’s march was directed to Persepolis, where 
he secured a treasure more than twice as great as that found at 
Susa. Upon Persepolis Alexander wreaked vengeance for all that 
Greece had suffered at the hands of the Persians. Many of the 
inhabitants were massacred and others sold into slavery, while the 
palaces of the Persian kings were given to the flames. 1 

176 . Conquests in India. With the tribes of what is now 
known as Afghanistan subdued, and the remote countries of 
Bactria and Sogdiana, lying north of the Hindu Kush, conquered 
and settled, Alexander recrossed the mountains and led his army 
down into the rich and crowded plains of India (327 b.c.). Here 
again he showed himself invincible, and received the submission 
of many of the native princes. 

Alexander’s desire was to extend his conquests to the Ganges, 
but his soldiers began to murmur at the length and hardness of 
their campaigns, and reluctantly he turned back. His return route 
lay through the ancient Gedrosia, now Baluchistan, a region 
frightful with burning deserts, amidst which his soldiers endured 
almost incredible privations- and sufferings. After a trying and 
calamitous march of over two months, Alexander, with the sur¬ 
vivors of his army, reached Carmania in Persia. 

177 . The Plans and Death of Alexander. As the capital of 
his vast empire, which now stretched from the Ionian Sea to the 
Indus, Alexander chose the ancient Babylon, upon the Euphrates, 
for the reason that such a location of the seat of government would 
help to promote his plans, which aimed at nothing less than the 
union and Hellenizing of the world. 

In the midst of his vast projects Alexander was seized by a 
fever, brought on doubtless by his insane excesses, and died 
at Babylon, 323 b.c., in the thirty-second year of his age. His 

1 Read Dryden’s Alexander’s Feast. 


11 4 


ALEXANDER THE GREAT 


[§ 178 


soldiers could not let him die without seeing him. The watchers of 
the palace were obliged to open the doors to them, and the veterans 
of a hundred battlefields filed sorrowfully past the couch of their 
dying commander. His body was carried first to Memphis, but 
afterwards to Alexandria, in Egypt, and there inclosed in a golden 
coffin, over which was raised a splendid mausoleum. His ambition 
for celestial honors was gratified in his death ; for in Egypt and 
elsewhere temples were dedicated to him, and divine worship was 
paid to his statues. 

178 . Results of Alexander’s Conquests. The remarkable con¬ 
quests of Alexander had far-reaching consequences. First, they 
ended the long struggle between Persia and Greece, and spread 
Hellenic civilization over Egypt and western Asia. It is particu¬ 
larly this spreading abroad of the culture of Greece which makes 
the short-lived Macedonian Empire of such importance in uni¬ 
versal history. 

Second, the distinction between Greek and barbarian was ef¬ 
faced, and the sympathies of men, hitherto so narrow and local, 
were widened, and thus an important preparation was made for 
the reception of the Christian creed of universal brotherhood. 

Third, the world was given a universal language of culture, 
which was a further preparation for the spread of Christian 
teachings. 

But the evil effects of these conquests were also positive and 
far-reaching. The sudden acquisition by the Greeks of the enor¬ 
mous wealth of the Persian Empire, and contact with the vices 
and the effeminate luxury of the oriental nations, had a most 
demoralizing effect upon Hellenic life. Greece became corrupt, 
and she in turn corrupted Rome. Thus the civilization of classical 
antiquity was undermined. 

References. Plutarch, Demosthenes and Alexander. Pickard-Cambridge, 
A. W., Demosthenes. Wheeler, B. I., Alexander. Dodge, T. A., Alexander. 
Hogarth, D. G., Philip and Alexander of Macedon and The Ancient Past, 
chap. v. Mahaffy, J. B., The Story of Alexander's Empire , chaps, i—v ; Greek 
Life and Thought, chap, ii; and Problems in Greek Histoiy, chap, vii, " Practical 
Politics in the Fourth Century.” 


CHAPTER XIX 


THE GR^CO-ORIENTAL WORLD FROM THE DEATH OF ALEX¬ 
ANDER TO THE CONQUEST OF GREECE BY THE ROMANS 

(323-146 B.C.) 

179. Hellenistic Culture. It has already been noticed that one 
of the most important results of the conquests of Alexander was 
the spreading of Greek culture over the countries of the Near East. 
It was chiefly through two agencies that the Greek language and 
arts and Greek letters were spread throughout the Orient. These 
were, first, the courts of the successors of Alexander which were 
established in Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt; and, second, the 
hundreds of Greek cities which were founded throughout all the 
regions included in the kingdoms of these Graeco-Macedonian 
rulers. Each court and each city was the radiating center of Greek 
culture and arts. The new cities, however, which were the more 
effective of the two agencies in the spread of Greek culture, 
were founded generally in the midst of a dense native population 
more or less advanced in civilization. In this environment Hellenic 
culture in all its elements—language, arts, manners and customs, 
ways of living, and ways of thinking—inevitably became modified, 
in some countries less, in others more. We indicate this changed 
character of the civilization by calling it Hellenistic thereby 
distinguishing it from the pure Hellenic culture of Greece. 

The formation of this Hellenistic or Graeco-oriental culture is 
one of the great matters of universal history, a matter like the 
formation later of the Graeco-Roman civilization in the great 
melting-pot of the world-empire of Rome. 

In the remaining sections of this chapter we shall speak briefly 
of some noteworthy matters in the history of continental Greece 

1 From Hellenist , a non-Greek who adopts the Greek language and imitates Greek 
manners and customs. 

TT 5 


n6 THE GRAECO-ORIENTAL WORLD [§180 

during the Hellenistic period and of the leading kingdoms that 
resulted from the break-up of the empire of Alexander. 

180. Macedonia. Before the close of the fourth century b.c. 
the vast empire created by Alexander’s unparalleled conquests had 
become broken into many fragments. Besides minor states , 1 three 
kingdoms of special importance, centering in Macedonia, Syria, 
and Egypt, rose out of the ruins. All were finally overwhelmed by 
the now rapidly rising power of Rome. 

The story of Macedonia from the death of Alexander on to the 
conquest of the country by the Romans is made up largely of the 
quarrels and crimes of rival aspirants for the crown that Philip 
and Alexander had worn. The country was one of the first east 
of the Adriatic to come in hostile contact with the great military 
republic of the West. After much intrigue and a series of wars, 
the country was eventually brought into subjection to the Italian 
power and made into a Roman province (146 b.c.). A large part 
of the population were sold as slaves. Not a man of note was left 
in the country. The great but short role Macedonia had played 
in history was ended. 

181. Continental Greece. From the subjection of Greece by 
Philip of Macedon to the absorption of Macedonia into the growing 
dominions of Rome, the Greek cities of the peninsula were, much 
of the time, under the real or nominal overlordship of the Macedo¬ 
nian kings. 

In the third century b.c. there arose in Greece two important 
confederacies, known as the Achaean and /Etolian leagues, whose 
history embraces almost every matter of interest and instruction 
in the later political life of the Greek cities. These late attempts 

1 Of these lesser states the following should be noted : 

a. Rhodes. The city of Rhodes, on the island of the same name, became the headt 
of a federation of adjacent island and coast cities, and thus laid the basis of a remarkable 
commercial prosperity and naval power. It was one of the chief centers of Hellenistic 
culture, and acquired a wide fame through its schools of art and rhetoric. Julius Csesar 
and Cicero both studied here under Rhodian teachers of oratory. 

b. Pontus. Pontus (Greek for sea), a state of Asia Minor, was so called from its 
position upon the Euxine. It was never thoroughly conquered by the Macedonians. It 
has a place in history mainly because of the luster shed upon it by the transcendent 
ability of one of its kings, Mithradates the Great (sect. 278). 


§ 182 ] 


THE SYRIAN KINGDOM 


117 

at federation among the Grecian cities were fostered by the intense 
desire of all patriotic Hellenes to free themselves from the hated 
arbitership of Macedonia. The Greeks had learned at last— 
but unhappily too late—that the liberty they prized so highly 
could be maintained only through union. 

Both of the leagues were broken up by Rome. In the year 
146 b.c., Corinth, the most important member of the Achaean 
League, was taken by the Romans, the men were killed, the women 
and children sold into slavery, the rich art treasures of the city 
sent as trophies to Rome, and its temples and other buildings given 
to the flames. Later all Greece, under the name of Achaea, was 
reduced to the status of a Roman province. 

182. The Syrian Kingdom. During the two centuries and 
more of its existence the Syrian kingdom played an important part 
in the civil history of the world. Under its first king it comprised 
nominally almost all the countries of Asia conquered by Alexander, 
thus stretching from the Hellespont to the Indus ; but in reality the 
monarchy embraced only Asia Minor, part of Syria, and the old 
Assyria and Babylonia. Its rulers were called Seleucidae, from 
the founder of the kingdom, Seleucus Nicator, famous as the 
builder of cities. The successors of Seleucus Nicator led the king¬ 
dom through checkered fortunes. On different sides provinces fell 
away and became independent states . 1 At last, coming into col¬ 
lision with Rome, the kingdom was destroyed, and its lands were 
incorporated with the Roman Republic (63 b.c.). 

183. The Kingdom of the Ptolemies in Egypt ( 323-30 b.c.). 
The Graeco-Egyptian empire of the Ptolemies, founded by 
Ptolemy I, surnamed Soter, was by far the most important, in its 
influence upon the civilization of the world, of all the kingdoms 
that owed their origin to the conquests of Alexander. Under 
Ptolemy I, Alexandria became the great depot of exchange for the 
products of the ancient world. At the entrance of the harbor stood 

1 The most noteworthy of these was Pergamum, a state in western Asia Minor which 
became independent upon the death of Seleucus Nicator (281 b.c.). Its capital, also 
called Pergamum, became a most noted center of Greek learning and civilization, and 
through its great library and university gained the renown of being, next to Alexandria 
in Egypt, the greatest city of the Hellenistic world. 


n8 


the graeco-oriental world 


[§ 184 


the Pharos, or lighthouse,— the first structure of its kind. This 
edifice was reckoned one of the seven wonders of the world. 

But it was not alone the exchange of material products that 
was comprehended in Ptolemy’s scheme. His aim was to make his 
capital the intellectual center of the world—the place where the 
arts, sciences, literatures, and even the religions of the world 
should meet and mingle. He founded the famous Museum, a sort 
of college, which became the " University of the East,” and estab¬ 
lished the renowned Alexandrian Library. He encouraged poets, 
artists, philosophers, and teachers in all departments of learning 
to settle in Alexandria by conferring upon them immunities and 
privileges, and by gifts and a munificent patronage. His court 
embraced the learning and genius of the age. 

The rule of the Ptolemies in Egypt lasted almost exactly three 
centuries ( 323-30 b.c.). The story of the beautiful but dissolute 
Cleopatra, the last of the house of the Ptolemies, belongs properly 
to the history of Rome, which city was now interfering in the 
affairs of the Orient. In the year 30 b.c., the year which marks 
the death of Cleopatra, Egypt was made a Roman province. 

184. Conclusion. We have now traced the political fortunes 
of the Greek race through about six centuries of authentic history. 
In succeeding chapters, in order to render more complete the pic¬ 
ture we have endeavored to draw of ancient Hellas, we shall add 
some details respecting Hellenic art, literature, philosophy, and 
society. Even a short study of these matters will help us to form 
a more adequate conception of that wonderful, many-sided genius 
of the Hellenic race which enabled Hellas, "captured, to lead 
captive her captor.” 

• 

References. IIolm, A., vol. iv (the best history in English of the period). 
Gardner, E. A., Nezv Chapters in Greek History, chap, xv, ” The Successors 
of Alexander and Greek Civilization in the East.” Mahaffy, J. B., The Stoiy 
of Alexander’s Empire , chaps, vi-xxxii ; Greek Life and Thought from the 
Age of Alexander to the Roman Conquest ; and The Progress of Hellenism in 
Alexander's Empire. 


CHAPTER XX 

GREEK ARCHITECTURE, SCULPTURE, AND PAINTING 

185. Introductory: the Greek Sense of Beauty. The Greeks 
were artists by nature. Everything they made, from the shrines 
for their gods to the meanest utensils of domestic use, was beau¬ 
tiful. " Ugliness gave them pain like a blow.” Beauty they placed 
next to holiness; indeed, they almost or quite made beauty and 
goodness the same thing. They are said to have thought it strange 
that Socrates was good, seeing he was so homely. 

I. ARCHITECTURE 

186. Orders of Greek Architecture. By the close of the sixth 
century Greek architecture had made considerable advance and 
presented three distinct styles, or orders. These are commonly 
known as the Doric, the Ionic, and the Corinthian (Fig. 45 ). 
They are distinguished from one another chiefly by differences in 
the proportions and ornamentation, of the column. 

The Doric column is without a base and has a plain capital. 
At first the Doric temples of the Greeks were almost as massive 
as those of the Egyptians, but gradually they grew less heavy. 

The Ionic column is characterized chiefly by the volutes, or 
spiral scrolls, of its capital, but is also marked by its fluting, its 
base, and its slender proportions. This form was principally em¬ 
ployed by the Greeks of Ionia, whence its name. 

The Corinthian order is distinguished by its rich capital, formed 
of acanthus leaves. This order was not much employed in Greece 
before the time of Alexander the Great. 

The entire structure was made to harmonize with its supporting 
columns. The general characteristics of the orders are happily 
suggested by the terms we use when we speak of the severe Doric, 

the graceful Ionic, and the ornate Corinthian. 

119 


120 


GREEK ARCHITECTURE 


[§ 187 


Speaking of the place which these styles held in Greek archi¬ 
tecture and have held in that of the world since Greek times, an 
eminent authority says, "We may admit that the invention and 
perfecting of these orders of Greek architecture has been (with 
one exception—the introduction of the arch) the most important 
event in the architectural history of the world.” 



Doric Ionic Corinthian 

Fig. 45. Orders of Greek Architecture 


It was religious feeling which created the noblest monuments 
of the architectural genius of Hellas. Hence in the few words 
which we shall have to say about Greek buildings our attention 
will be confined almost exclusively to the temples of Greece. 

187. The Delphian Temple. One of the oldest temple sites in 
Greece was at Delphi. In the year 548 b.c. the temple then stand¬ 
ing was destroyed by fire. All the cities and states of Hellas con¬ 
tributed to its rebuilding. The later structure was impressive from 
both its colossal size and the massive simplicity that characterizes' 
the Doric style of architecture. It was crowded with the spoils 
of many battlefields, with the rich'gifts of kings, and with rare 
works of art . 1 After remaining long secure, through the awe and 

1 Besides being in a sense museums, the temples of the Greeks were also banks of 
deposit. The priests often loaned out on interest the money deposited with them, the 
revenue from this source being added to that from the leased lands of the temple’and 
from the tithes of war booty to meet the expenses of the services of the shrine. 









































































































12 I 


§ 188 ] THE ATHENIAN PARTHENON 

I 

reverence which its oracle inspired, it finally suffered repeated 
spoliation. The Phocians, pressed for funds in a war, despoiled 
the temple of a treasure equivalent, it is estimated, to more than 
Si0,000,000, and later the Romans seem to have stripped it 
almost bare of its art treasures. 

188 . The Athenian Parthenon. We have already glanced at 
the Parthenon, the sanctuary of the virgin goddess Athena, upon 
the Acropolis at Athens (sect. 151). This temple, which is built 
in the Doric order, of marble from the neighboring Pentelicus, is 
regarded as the finest specimen of Greek architecture. The art 
exhibited in its construction is an art of ideal perfection. After 
standing for more than two thousand years, and having served 
successively as a pagan temple, a Christian church, and a Moham¬ 
medan mosque, it finally was made to serve as a Turkish powder 
magazine in a war with the Venetians in 1687. Unfortunately a 
bomb ignited the magazine, and more than half of the wonderful 
masterpiece was shivered into fragments. Even in its ruined state 
the structure is the most highly prized memorial that we possess 
of the builders of the ancient world. 

189 . Olympia and the Temple of Zeus Olympius. The sacred 
plain of the Alpheus in Elis was, as we have learned, the spot 
where were held the celebrated Olympian games. Here was raised 
a magnificent Doric temple consecrated to Zeus Olympius, and 
around it were grouped a vast number of shrines, treasure-houses, 
porticoes, and various other structures. 

For many centuries these buildings adorned the consecrated 
spot and witnessed the recurring festivals. But in the fifth century 
of our era the Christian emperor Theodosius II ordered their 
destruction, as monuments of paganism, and the splendid struc¬ 
tures were given to the flames. Earthquakes, landslips, and the 
floods of the Alpheus completed in time the work of destruction 
and buried the ruins beneath a thick layer of earth. 

For centuries the desolate spot remained unvisited; but late 
in the last century the Germans excavated the temple site and 
the sites of about forty other structures. The remains unearthed 
were of such an extensive nature as to make possible a restoration 


122 


GREEK ARCHITECTURE 


[§ 190 


of the noble assemblage of buildings which we may believe re¬ 
creates with fidelity the scene looked upon by the visitor to 
Olympia in the days of its architectural glory (Fig. 46 ). 

190. Theaters and Stadia. The Greek theater was semi¬ 
circular in form, and open to the sky, as shown in the accom¬ 
panying cut. The space between the lower range of seats and 
the stage was the orchestra, or dancing-place for the chorus. 



Fig. 47. The Theater of Dionysus at Athens. (From a photograph) 

The most noted of Greek theaters was the Theater of Dionysus 
at Athens, which was the model of all the others. It was cut 
partly in the native rock on the southeastern slope of the Acropolis, 
the Greeks in the construction of their theaters generally taking 
advantage of a hillside. The structure probably would seat about 
twenty thousand spectators. 

The Greek stadium, in which foot races and other games 
were held, was a narrow rectangular enclosure between six and 
seven hundred feet in length. In its construction, as in that of 
the theater, advantage was usually taken of a hillside, or of a 
trough between two ridges, the slopes of which gave standing- 
ground for the spectators or, in later times, formed the foundation 
for tiers of wooden or stone seats. There was a stadium at every 
chief place of assemblage in the Greek world. 











§ 191] 


THE ARCHAIC PERIOD 


!23 




•X" 




--jgssas^i 


fe5 

M 

3 : 


i'Hli 


II. SCULPTURE AND PAINTING 

191. The Archaic Period, down to the Persian Wars. Among 
the oldest remains of Greek sculpture are specimens of carvings 
in relief. A good example of this archaic phase 
of Greek sculpture is seen in the tombstone 
of Aristion (Fig. 48 ), discovered in Attica in 
1838 . The date of this work is placed at about 
500 b.c. A sort of Egyptian rigidity still binds 
the limbs of the figure, yet there are sugges¬ 
tions of the grace and freedom of a truer and 
a higher art. 

192. Influence of the Olympic Games and 
the Gymnasium upon Greek Sculpture. To¬ 
ward the latter part of the sixth century b.c. 
it became the custom to set up images of the 
victors in the Olympic games. It was probably 
this custom that gave one of the earliest impulses 
to Greek sculpture. The grounds at Olympia 
became crowded with "a band of chosen youth 
in imperishable forms.” 

In still another way did the Olympic contests 
and the exercises of the gymnasia exert a most 
helpful influence upon Greek sculpture. They 
afforded the artist unrivaled opportunities for 
the study of the human form. "The whole race,” 
as Symonds says, " lived out its sculpture and its 
painting, rehearsed, as it were, the great works 
of Phidias and Polygnotus in physical exercises 
before it learned to express itself in marble or 
in color.” 

193. The Period of Perfection of Greek Sculpture; Phidias. 

Greek sculpture was at its best during the last half of the fifth 
century b.c. 1 The preeminent sculptor of this period of perfection 


■■ 


OT7 I 0> 


Fig. 48. Stele 
of Aristion 

Example of archaic 
Attic sculpture 


1 Almost all the masterpieces of the Greek sculptors have perished; they are known 
to us for the most part only through Roman copies. 


















124 


GREEK SCULPTURE AND PAINTING [§194 


was Phidias. It was his genius which, as already mentioned, cre¬ 
ated the marvelous figures of the pediments and of the frieze of 
the Parthenon. 1 

The most celebrated of his colossal sculptures were the statue 
of Athena within the Parthenon and that of Olympian Zeus in the 
temple at Olympia. The statue of Athena was of gigantic size, 

being about forty feet in height, and 
was constructed of ivory and gold, t 
the hair, weapons, and drapery being 
of the latter material. The statue of 
Olympian Zeus was also of ivory and 
gold. It was sixty feet high and 
represented the god seated on his 
throne. The colossal proportions of 
this wonderful work, as well as the 
lofty yet benign aspect of the coun¬ 
tenance, harmonized well with the 
popular conception of the majesty 
and grace of the " father of gods and 
men.” It was thought a great mis¬ 
fortune to die without having seen 
the Olympian Zeus. The statue was 
in existence for eight hundred years. It is believed to have been 
carried to Constantinople and to have perished there in a con¬ 
flagration in the fifth century of the Christian era. 

194 . Praxiteles. Though Greek sculpture attained its highest 
perfection in the fifth century, still the following century produced 
sculptors whose work possessed qualities of rare excellence. The 
most eminent sculptor of this period was Praxiteles (period of 
activity about 360-340 b.c.), of whom it has been said that he 
"rendered into stone the moods of the soul.” Among his chief 
pieces was the Hermes, which was set up at Olympia. To the great 

1 The subject of the wonderful frieze was the procession which formed the most 
important feature of an Athenian festival celebrated every four years in honor of the 
patron goddess of Athens. The best part of the frieze is now in the British Museum, 
the Parthenon having been largely despoiled of its coronal of sculptures by L.ord Elgin. 
Read Lord Byron’s The Curse of Minerva. 



Fig. 49. The Wrestlers 

” Particularly were the games pro¬ 
motive of sculpture, since they 
afforded the sculptor living models 
for his art” (sect. 103) 



§195] 


THE SCHOOL OF RHODES 


12 5 


joy of archaeologists this precious memorial of antiquity was dis¬ 
covered in 1877, so ^at now we possess an undoubtedly original 
work of one of the great masters of Greek sculpture (Fig. 50). 

195 . The School of Rhodes. The Graeco-oriental period saw the 
rise at Rhodes, at this time the commercial emporium of the eastern 
Mediterranean, of a cele¬ 
brated school of sculp¬ 
ture. Very many of the 
prized works of Greek 
art in our museums were 
executed by members of 
this Rhodian school. 

One of the most noted 
of the Rhodian sculptors 
was Chares, the designer 
of the celebrated Colos¬ 
sus of Rhodes (about 
280 b.c.). This work 
was reckoned as one of 
the seven wonders of 
the world. 1 

But the most remark¬ 
able piece of sculpture 
(one of the masterpieces 
of Hellenistic art) at¬ 
tributed to members of the school of Rhodes is the celebrated 
group known as the Laocoon (Fig. 51), found at Rome in 1506. 

196 . Painting. With the exception of antique vases, a few 
patches of mural decoration, some interesting portraits, dating 
probably from the second century after Christ, found in graves 
in Lower Egypt, and colored sculpturings, all specimens of Greek 
painting have perished. Not a single work of any great painter 
of antiquity has survived the accidents of time. Consequently 



Fig. 50. Hermes with the Infant 
Dionysus 

An original work of Praxiteles, found in 1877 at 
Olympia. " The only certainly identified original 
work of any famous Greek Artist ” 


1 The statue was not quite as large as the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor. 
After standing about half a century, the Colossus was overthrown by an earthquake. 
Nine hundred years later it was broken up and sold for old metal. 







126 


GREEK SCULPTURE AND PAINTING [§ 196 



our knowledge of Greek painting is derived chiefly from the de¬ 
scription by the ancient writers of renowned works, and their 

anecdotes of great painters. 

Polygnotus (flourished 
475-455 b.c.) has been 

called the Prometheus of 
painting, because he was the 
first to give fire and ani¬ 
mation to the expression of 
the countenance. "In his 
hand,” it is affirmed, "the 
human features became for 
the first time the mirror of 
the soul.” Of a Polyxena 1 
painted by this great master 
it was said that "she car¬ 
ried in her eyelids the whole 
history of the Trojan War.” 

Apelles, the " Raphael of 
antiquity,” was the court 
painter of Alexander the 
Great. He was such a con¬ 
summate master of the art 
of painting and carried it 
to such a state of perfection 
that the ancient writers 
After him the art declined, 


Fig. 51. The Laocoon Group 
(Vatican Museum) 

Found at Rome in 1506. The subject repre¬ 
sented is the cruel suffering inflicted upon 
Laocoon, a Trojan priest, and his two sons, 
through the agency of terrible serpents sent 
by Athena, whose anger Laocoon had incurred 
(see ALneid , ii, 212-224) 

, spoke of it as the "Art of Apelles.” 


and no other really great name appears. 


References. Hamlin, A. D. F., Text-book of the History of Architecture, 
chaps, vi, vii. Fowler, H. N., and Wheeler, J. R., Greek Archcrology. 
Murray, A. S., Handbook of Greek Archceology ; A History of Greek Sculpture, 
2 vols.; and The Sculptures of the Parthenon. Gardner, E. A., Ancient Athens 
and Handbook of Greek Sculpture. Von Mach, E., Greek Sculpture: its Spirit 
and Principles. Gardner, P., Principles of Greek Art. Tarrell, F. B., A 
History of Greek Art. Harrison, J. E., Introductory Studies in Greek Art. 

1 Polyxena was a daughter of the Trojan Priam, famous for her beauty and 
sufferings. 












CHAPTER XXI 


GREEK LITERATURE 

197 . The Greeks as Literary Artists. It was that same ex¬ 
quisite sense of fitness and proportion and beauty which made the 
Greeks artists in marble that also made them artists in language. 
"'Of all the beautiful things which they created,” says Professor 
Jebb, "their own language was the most beautiful.” This language 
they wrought into epics and lyrics and dramas and histories and 
orations as incomparable in form and beauty as their temples 
and statues. 

198 . The Homeric Poems. The most precious literary prod¬ 
ucts of the springtime of Hellas are the so-called Homeric poems, 
—the Iliad and the Odyssey ,—wherein are reflected the glories 
of that brilliant HLgean civilization which preceded the historic 
culture of Greece. 

Until the rise of modern German criticism these poems were 
almost universally ascribed to a single bard named Homer, who 
was believed to have lived about the middle of the ninth century 
b.c., one or two centuries after the events commemorated in his 
poems. Tradition represents seven different cities as contending 
for the honor of having been his birthplace. He traveled widely 
(so it was believed), lost his sight, and then as a wandering 
minstrel sang his immortal verses to admiring listeners in the 
different cities of Hellas. 

But it is now the opinion of perhaps the majority of scholars 
that the Iliad and the Odyssey, as they stand today, are not, either 
of them, the creation of a single poet. They are believed to be 
the work of many bards. The "Wrath of Achilles,” however, 
which forms the nucleus of the Iliad, may, with very great proba¬ 
bility, be ascribed to Homer, whom we may believe to have been 
the most prominent of a brotherhood of bards who flourished about 

127 


128 


GREEK LITERATURE 


[§ 199 


the ninth and eighth centuries before the Christian era. The 
Odyssey is probably at least a century later than the Iliad. 



199 . Hesiod. Hesiod, who is believed to have lived toward 
the close of the eighth century b.c., was the poet of nature and of 
peasant life in the dim transition age of Hellas. The Homeric 

bards sang of the deeds of 
heroes and of a far-away 
time when gods mingled 
with men. Hesiod sings of 
common men and of every¬ 
day, present duties. His 
greatest poem is Works 
and Days. This is in the 
main a sort of farmer’s 
calendar, with minute in¬ 
structions respecting farm 
labor, and beautiful de¬ 
scriptive passages of the 
changing seasons. 

200 . Lyric Poetry. The 
island of Lesbos was the 
hearth and home of sev¬ 
eral of the earlier lyric 
poets. Among these sing¬ 
ers was Sappho (about 
610-570 b.c.) , who w r as 
exalted by the Greeks to 
a place next to Homer. 
Plato calls her the Tenth Muse. Although her fame endures, her 
poetry, excepting a few precious verses, has long since perished. 
Anacreon (period of poetical activity about 550-500 b.c.) was 
a courtier at the time of the Greek tyrannies. 

But the greatest of the Greek lyric poets, and perhaps the 
greatest of all lyric poets of every age and race, was Pindar (522- 
448 b.c.). He was born at Thebes, but spent most of his time 
in the cities of Magna Graecia. The greater number of Pindar’s 


Fig. 52. Homer 

Ideal portrait of the Hellenistic Age 














§ 201 ] 


ORIGIN OF THE GREEK DRAMA 


129 


poems were inspired by the scenes of the national festivals. They 
describe in lofty strains the splendors of the Olympian chariot 
races, or the glory of the victors at the Isthmian, the Nemean, 
or the Pythian games. 

201. Origin of the Greek Drama. The Greek drama, in both 
its branches of tragedy and comedy, grew out of the songs and 
dances instituted in honor of the god of wine, Dionysus. Tragedy 
(goat song, possibly from the accompanying sacrifice of a goat) 
sprang from the graver songs, and comedy (village song) from the 



Fig 53. Hoeing and Ploughing. (From a vase painting of the sixth 

century b.c.) 

Pray to Zeus . . . when thou beginnest thy labor, as soon as, putting thy hand to the 
plough, thou touchest the back of the oxen that draw at the oaken beam. Just behind 
thee, let a servant, equipped with a mattock, raise trouble for the birds by covering the 
seed. — Hesiod, Works and Days , vv. 465-471 (Croiset’s trans.) 


lighter and more farcical ones. Gradually recital and dialogue 
were added, there being at first but a single speaker, then two, 
and finally three, which last was the classical number. 

Owing to its origin, the Greek drama always retained a religious 
character and, further, presented two distinct features, the chorus 
(the songs and dances) and the dialogue. At first the chorus was 
the all-important part; but later the dialogue became the more 
prominent portion, the chorus, however, always remaining an essen¬ 
tial feature of the performance. Finally, in the golden age of the 
Attic stage, the chorus dancers and singers were carefully trained at 
great expense, and the dialogue and choral odes were the master¬ 
piece of some great poet,—and then the Greek drama, the most 
splendid creation of human genius, was complete. 

202. The Three Great Tragic Poets. There are three great 
names in Greek tragedy,—.Eschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. 









130 


GREEK LITERATURE 


[§ 202 


These dramatists all wrote during the splendid period which fol¬ 
lowed the victories of the Persian W ars. I hey drew the material 
of their plays chiefly from the myths and legends of the heroic 
age, just as Shakespeare for many of his plays used the legends of 
the semi-historical periods of his own country or of other lands. 
Of the two hundred and more dramas produced by these poets, 
only thirty-two have escaped the accidents of time. 

iEschylus (525-456 b.c.) knew how to touch the hearts of the 
generation that had won the victories of the Persian Wars, for 
he had fought at Marathon and probably also at Salamis. The 
Athenians called him the Father of Tragedy. The central idea 
of his dramas is that "Zeus tames excessive lifting up of heart.’’ 
Prometheus Bound is one of his chief works. Another of his great 
tragedies is Agamemnon, thought by some to be his masterpiece. 
The theme of his The Persians was the defeat of Xerxes and his 
host, which afforded the poet a good opportunity "to state his 
philosophy of Nemesis, here being a splendid tragic instance of 
pride humbled, of greatness brought to nothing, through one man’s 
impiety and pride.” 

Sophocles (about 496-405 b.c.) while yet a youth gained the 

prize in a poetic contest with ^Eschylus. Plutarch says that 

2 Eschylus was so chagrined by his defeat that he left Athens and 

retired to Sicily. Sophocles now became the leader of tragedy 

at Athens. His dramas were perfect works of art. 1 The central 

idea of his pieces is the same as that which characterizes those 

% 

of .Eschylus, namely, that self-will and insolent pride arouse the 
righteous indignation of the gods, and that no mortal can contend 
successfully against the will of Zeus. 

Euripides (480-406 b.c.) was a more popular dramatist than 
either ZEschylus or Sophocles. His fame passed far beyond the 
limits of Greece. Plutarch says that the Sicilians were so fond 
of his lines that many of the Athenian prisoners, taken before 
Syracuse, bought their liberty by teaching their masters his verses. 

1 The chief works of Sophocles are CEdipus Tyrannus , (Edipus Colonens , and 
Antigone , all of which are founded upon the old tales of the prehistoric royal line 
of Thebes. 


§ 203 ] COMEDY; ARISTOPHANES 131 

203 . Comedy; Aristophanes. Foremost among all writers of 
comedy must be placed Aristophanes (about 450-385 b.c.). For 
a generation his inimitable humor furnished the Athenians with 
a chief part of their entertainment in the theater. 1 He even made 
the Athenians laugh at themselves as he held up to mirth-provoking 
ridicule their mania for everything new, and made fun of their 
proceedings in the Ecclesia, their fondness for sitting daylong in 
their great law courts, and their way of doing things in general. 

204 . The Three Great Historians. Poetry is the first form 
of literary expression among all peoples. So we must not be sur¬ 
prised to find that it was not until two centuries or more after the 
composition of the Homeric poems, that is, about the sixth cen¬ 
tury b.c., that prose writing appeared among the Greeks. Histori¬ 
cal composition was then first cultivated. We can speak briefly of 
only three historians—Herodotus, Thucydides, and Xenophon— 
whose names were cherished among the ancients, and whose 
writings are highly valued by ourselves. 

Herodotus (about 484-425 b.c.), born at Halicarnassus, in 
Asia Minor, is called the Father of History. He traveled over 
much of the then-known world, visiting Italy, Egypt, and Baby¬ 
lonia, and described as an eyewitness, with a never-failing vivacity 
and freshness, the wonders of the different lands he had seen. 
Herodotus lived in a story-telling age, and he is himself an inimi¬ 
table story-teller. To him we are indebted for a large part of the 
picturesque tales of antiquity,— tales of men and happenings of 
which the world will never tire. He was overcredulous, and was 
often imposed upon by his guides in Egypt and at Babylon ; but 
he describes with great care and accuracy what he himself saw. 
The central theme of his great history is the Persian Wars, the 
struggle between Asia and Greece. 

Thucydides (about 471-400 b.c.), though not so popular an 
historian as Herodotus, was a much more philosophical writer. 
He held a command during the earlier years of the Peloponnesian 
War, but having incurred the displeasure of the Athenians he was 
sent into the exile which afforded him leisure to compose his 

l His best-known plays are the Knights , the Clouds, the Wasps, the Birds , and the Frogs. 


132 


GREEK LITERATURE 


[§ 205 


history of that great struggle. Thucydides died before his task was 
completed. His work is considered a model of historical writing. 
Demosthenes read and reread his writings to improve his own 
style; and the greatest orators and historians of modern times 
have been equally diligent students of the work of the great 
Athenian. 

Xenophon (about 445-355 b.c.) was an Athenian, and is known 
both as a general and as a writer. T he works that render his name 

so familiar are his Anabasis , a simple 
yet thrilling narrative of the expedition 
of the Ten Thousand Greeks (sect. 162), 
and his Memorabilia, or " Recollections ” 
of Socrates. 

205 . Oratory; Demosthenes. The 

art of oratory among the Greeks was 
fostered and developed by the generally 
democratic character of their institu¬ 
tions. The public assemblies of the 
democratic cities were great debating 
clubs, open to all. The gift of eloquence 
secured for its possessor a sure preemi¬ 
nence. The great jury courts of Athens (sect. 150) were also 
schools of oratory; for every citizen there was obliged to be his 
own advocate and to defend his own case. 

It has been the fortune of Demosthenes (385-322 b.c.) to have 
his name become throughout the world the synonym of eloquence. 
The labors and struggles by which, according to tradition, he 
achieved excellence in his art are held up anew to each generation 
of youth as guides to the path to success. Respecting the ora¬ 
tions of Demosthenes against Philip of Macedon we have already 
spoken (sect. 168). 

206 . The Alexandrian Age (300-146 b.c.). Under the Ptole¬ 
mies Alexandria in Egypt became the center of literary activity, 
hence the term Alexandrian, applied to the literature of the 
age. The great Museum and Library of the Ptolemies afforded in 
that capital such facilities for students and authors as existed in 



Fig. 54. Thucydides 
(National Museum, Naples) 


§ 207] 


GR2ECO-ROMAN WRITERS 


J 33 


no other city in the world. But the creative age of Greek litera¬ 
ture was over. The writers of the period were commentators and 
translators. One of the most important literary undertakings of 
the age was the translation of the Hebrew Scriptures of the Old 
Testament into Greek. From the traditional number of transla¬ 
tors (seventy) the version is known as the Septuagint. 

Among the poets of the period one name, and only one, stands 
out clear and preeminent. This is that of Theocritus, a Sicilian 
poet, who wrote at Alexandria under Ptolemy Philadelphus. His 
rustic idyls are charming pictures of Sicilian pastoral life. 

207 . Conclusion: Graeco-Roman Writers. After the Roman 
conquest of Greece, the center of Greek literary activity shifted 
from Alexandria to Rome. Hence Greek literature now passes 
into what is known as its Graeco-Roman period (146 b.c.-a.d. 527). 

The most noted historical writer of the first part of this period 

« 

was Polybius (d. 121B.C.), who wrote a history of the Roman 
conquests from 264 to 146 b.c. His work, though it has reached 
us in a sadly mutilated state, is of great worth ; for Polybius wrote 
of matters that had become history in his own day. He had lived 
to see the greater part of the world he knew absorbed by the 
ever-growing dominions of the city of Rome. 

Plutarch (b. about a.d. 40), -'the prince of biographers,” will 
always live in literature as the author of the Parallel Lives , in 
which, with great wealth of illustrative anecdotes, he compares or 
contrasts Greek and Roman statesmen and soldiers. One motive 
that led Plutarch to write the book, as we may infer from the 
partiality which he displays for his Greek heroes, was a desire 
to let the world know that Hellas had once bred men the peers 
of the best men that Rome had ever brought forth; another was 
"through the example of great men to teach men to live well.” 
And this last end he attained, for his work has been and is a 
great force in the moral education of the world. 

References. Croiset, A. and M., An Abridged History of Greek Literature. 
Wright, W. C., A Short History of Greek Literature. Mahaffy, J. P., History 
of Classical Greek Literature , 2 vols. Jevons, F. B., History of Greek Litera¬ 
ture. Murray, G. G. A., History of Ancient Greek History. 


CHAPTER XXII 

GREEK PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE 


208 . The Seven Sages: the Forerunners. About 600 b.c. 
there lived in different parts of Hellas many persons of real or 
reputed originality and wisdom. Among these were seven men, 
called the Seven Sages, who held the place of preeminence. 1 To 
them belongs the distinction of having first aroused the Greek 
intellect to philosophical thought. The wise sayings—such as 
"Know thyself,” "Nothing in excess,”—attributed to them are 
beyond number. 

While the maxims and proverbs ascribed to the sages, like the 
so-called proverbs of Solomon, contain a vast amount of practical 
wisdom, they do not constitute philosophy proper, which is a sys¬ 
tematic search for the reason and causes of things. They form 
simply the introduction or prelude to Greek philosophy. 

209 . The Ionic Philosophers ; Thales. The first Greek school 
of philosophy grew up in the cities of Ionia, in Asia Minor, where 
almost all forms of Hellenic culture seem to have had their be¬ 
ginnings. The founder of the school was Thales of Miletus (born 
about 640 b.c.), the Father of Greek Philosophy. 

Thales visited Egypt, and it is probable that what he learned 
there formed the basis of his work in geometry and astronomy. 
He is said to have taught the Egyptians how to measure the height 
of the pyramids by means of their shadows. He is also credited 
with having foretold an eclipse of the sun—a very great scien¬ 
tific achievement. 

210 . Pythagoras. Pythagoras (about 580-500 b.c.) was born 
on the island of Samos, whence his title of the "Samian Sage.” 

1 As in the case of the seven wonders of the world, ancient writers were not always 
agreed as to what names should be accorded the honor of enrollment in the sacred 
number. Thales, Solon, Periander, Cleobulus, Chilo, Bias, and Pittacus are, however, 
usually reckoned as the Seven Wise Men. 


134 


§211] 


ANAXAGORAS 


1 SS 


The most of his later years were passed at Croton, in southern 
Italy, where he became the founder of a celebrated brotherhood, or 
association. Legend tells how his pupils in debate used no other 
argument than the words Ipse dixit ("he himself said so”). It is 
to Pythagoras, according to the legend, that we are indebted 
for the word philosopher. Being asked of what he was master, 
he replied that he was simply a "philosopher,” that is, a "lover 
of wisdom.” 

In astronomy the Pythagoreans held views which anticipated by 
two thousand years those of Copernicus. They taught that the 
earth is a sphere, and that it, together with the other planets, 
revolves about a central globe of fire, " the hearth, or altar, of the 
universe.” 

211 . Anaxagoras. Anaxagoras (about 500-427 b.c.) was the 
first Greek philosopher who made Mind , instead of necessity or 
chance, the arranging and harmonizing force of the universe. 
"Reason rules the world” was his first maxim. In the views he 
held of the universe in general Anaxagoras was far in advance of 
his age. He taught that the sun was not a god, but a glowing 
rock, as large, probably as the Peloponnesus. He suffered the fate 
of Galileo in a later age; he was charged with impiety and exiled. 
Yet this did not disturb the serenity of his mind. In banishment 
he said, "It is not I who have lost the Athenians, but the Athe¬ 
nians who have lost me.” 

212 . The Sophists. The Sophists were a class of philosophers 
or teachers who gave instruction in rhetoric and the art of dispu¬ 
tation. They traveled about from city to city, and contrary to 
the custom of the Greek philosophers took fees from their pupils. 
They were in general teachers of superficial knowledge, who cared 
more for the dress in which the thought was arrayed than for the 
thought itself. The better philosophers of the time despised them, 
and applied to them many harsh epithets, taunting them with 
selling wisdom and accusing them of boasting that they could 
"make the worse appear the better reason.” But there were 
those among the Sophists who taught a true philosophy of life and 
whose good influence was great and lasting. 


GREEK PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE 


[§ 213 


136 


213 . Socrates. Volumes would not contain all that would 
be both instructive and interesting respecting the teachings and 
speculations of the three great philosophers, Socrates, Plato, and 
Aristotle. We can, however, accord to each only a few words. 
Of these three eminent thinkers, Socrates (469-399 b.c.) has the 
firmest hold upon the affections of the world. 

Nature, while generous to Socrates in the gifts of soul, was un¬ 
kind to him in the matter of his person. His face was ugly as a 

satyr’s so that he invited the shafts of the 
comic poets of his time. He loved to gather 
a little circle about him in the Agora or in 
the streets, and then draw out his listeners 
by a series of ingenious questions. His 
method was so peculiar to himself that it 
has received the designation of the "Socra- 
tic dialogue.” He has very happily been 
called an educator , as opposed to an instruc¬ 
tor. Among the young men of his time 
Socrates found many devoted pupils. 

This great philosopher believed that the 
proper study of mankind is man, his favo¬ 
rite maxim being" Know thyself.” He taught 
one of the purest systems of morals that 
the world had yet known, one which has been surpassed only by 
the precepts of the Great Teacher. He believed in the immortality 
of the soul and in a Supreme Ruler of the universe. Of his prose¬ 
cution and condemnation to death on the charge of impiety, and 
of his last hours with his devoted disciples, we have already spoken 
(sect. 163). 

214 . Plato. Plato (427-347 b.c.), "the broad-browed,” was 
a philosopher of noble birth, before whom in youth opened a 
brilliant career in the world of Greek affairs; but, coming under 
the influence of Socrates, he resolved to give up all his prospects 
in politics and devote himself to philosophy. Upon the condem¬ 
nation and death of his master he went into voluntary exile. He 
finally returned to Athens and established a school of philosophy 



Fig. 55. Socrates 
(National Museum, 
Naples) 



§215] 


ARISTOTLE 


137 


in the Academy. Here, amid the disciples that thronged to his 
lectures, he passed the greater part of his long life laboring inces¬ 
santly upon the great works that bear his name. 

Plato imitated in his writings Socrates’ method in conversation. 
The discourse is carried on by questions and answers, hence the 
term Dialogues that attaches to his works. He attributes to his 
master, Socrates, much of the philosophy that he teaches; yet his 
writings are all deeply tinged with his own genius and thought. 
In the Republic Plato portrays his conception of an ideal state. 
The Phoedo is a record of the last conversation of Socrates with 
his disciples,—an immortal argument for the immortality of the 
soul. 

Plato believed not only in a future life (postexistence) but 
also in preexistence; teaching that the ideas of reason, or our 
intuitions, are reminiscences of a past experience. 1 Plato’s doc¬ 
trines have exerted a profound influence upon all schools of 
thought and philosophies since his day. In some of his precepts 
he made a close approach to the teachings of Christianity. "We 
ought to become like God,” he said, "as far as this is possible ; and 
to become like him is to become holy and just and wise.” 

215 . Aristotle. As Socrates was surpassed by his pupil Plato, 
so in turn was Plato excelled by his disciple Aristotle (384- 
322 b.c.), "the master of those who know.” In him the philo¬ 
sophical genius of the Hellenic intellect reached its culmination. 
It may be doubted whether all the ages since his time have pro¬ 
duced so profound and powerful an intellect as his. He was born 
in the Macedonian city of Stagira, and hence is frequently called 
"the Stagirite.” 

After studying for twenty years in the school of Plato, Aristotle 
accepted the invitation of Philip II of Macedon to become the 
preceptor of his son, the young prince Alexander (sect. 170). In 

1 In the following lines from Wordsworth we catch a glimpse of Plato’s doctrine 
of preexistence: 

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgettingNot in entire forgetfulness, 

The soul that rises with us, our life’s star, And not in utter nakedness, 

Hath had elsewhere its setting, But trailing clouds of glory, do we come 

And cometh from afar: From God, who is our home. 

Ode on Immortality 


138 


GREEK PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE 


[§ 216 


after years Alexander became the liberal patron of his tutor, and, 
besides giving him large sums of money, encouraged and aided 
him in his scientific studies by causing to be sent to him collections 
of plants and animals gathered on his distant expeditions. 

Among the productions of Aristotle are works on the natural 
history of animals, on rhetoric, logic, poetry, morals, politics, 

and physics. Eor centuries his 
works were studied and copied and 
commented upon by both European 
and Asiatic scholars, in the schools 
of Athens and Rome, of Alexan¬ 
dria and Constantinople. Until the 
time of Bacon in England,for nearly 
two thousand years, Aristotle ruled 
over the realm of mind with a des¬ 
potic sway. All teachers and phi¬ 
losophers acknowledged him as their 
guide and master. 

216 . Zeno and the Stoics. We 
are now approaching the period 
when the political life of Hellas was 
failing, and was being fast over¬ 
shadowed by the greatness of Rome. 
But the intellectual life of the Greek 
race was by no means eclipsed by 
the calamity that ended its political existence. For centuries 
after that event the poets, scholars, and philosophers of this 
highly gifted people led a brilliant career in the schools and uni¬ 
versities of the Mediterranean world. From among all the phi¬ 
losophers of this long period we select for brief mention only two, 
Zeno and Epicurus, who are noted as founders of schools of 
philosophy that exerted a vast influence upon both the thought 
and the conduct of many centuries. 

Zeno, the founder of the celebrated school of the Stoics, lived 
in the third century before our era (about 340-265 b.c.) . He 
taught at Athens in a public porch (in Greek, stoa), from which 



Fig. 56. Aristotle. (Spada 
Palace, Rome) 







217] 


EPICURUS AND THE EPICUREANS 


139 


circumstance comes the name applied to his disciples. 1 The Stoics 
inculcated virtue for its own sake. They believed—and it would 
be difficult to frame a better creed—that "man’s chief business 
here is to do his duty.” They schooled themselves to bear with 
composure any lot that destiny might appoint. Any sign of 
emotion on account of calamity was considered unmanly. Thus 
a certain Stoic, when told of the sudden death of his son, is said 
merely to have remarked, "Well, I never imagined that I had 
given life to an immortal.” 

This Stoic code did not become a really important factor in the 
moral life of the ancient world until after its adoption by the finer 
spirits among the Romans. It never influenced the masses, but 
for several centuries it gave moral support and guidance to many 
of the best men of the Roman race, among whom were several 
emperors. In truth, Stoicism was one of the most helpful ele¬ 
ments in the rich legacy which Hellas transmitted to Rome. 

217 . Epicurus and the Epicureans. In opposition to the Stoics, 
Epicurus (341-270 b. c.) taught that pleasure is the highest 
good. He recommended virtue, indeed, but only as a means for 
the attainment of pleasure; whereas the Stoics made virtue an 
end in itself. In other words, Epicurus said, " Be virtuous, because 
virtue will bring you the greatest amount of happiness”; Zeno 
said, "Be virtuous, because you ought to be.” 

Epicurus had many followers in Greece, and his doctrines were 
eagerly embraced by many among the Romans during the later 
corrupt period of the Empire. Many of these disciples carried the 
doctrines of their master to an excess that he himself would have 
been the first to condemn. Their whole philosophy was expressed 
in the proverb, "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” 

218 . Mathematics; Euclid and Archimedes. Alexandria, in 
Egypt, became the seat of the most celebrated school of mathe¬ 
matics of antiquity. Here, under Ptolemy Soter, flourished Euclid, 
the great geometer, whose work forms the basis of the science of 

1 The StoicaJ philosophy was the outgrowth, in part at least, of that of the Cynics. 
The typical representative of this sect is found in Diogenes, who lived, so the story 
goes, in a wine cask and went about Athens by daylight with a lantern, in search., 
as he said, of a man. The Cynics were simply a race of pagan hermits. 


140 


GREEK PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE 


[§219 


geometry as taught in our schools today. Ptolemy himself was 
his pupil. The royal student, however, seems to have disliked the 
severe application required to master the problems of Euclid, and 
asked his teacher if there was not some easier way. Euclid replied, 
"There is no royal road to geometry.” In the third century b.c., 
Syracuse, in Sicily, was the home of Archimedes, the greatest 
mathematician that the Grecian world produced. 

219 . Astronomy and Geography. Among ancient Greek 
astronomers and geographers the names of Aristarchus and Clau¬ 
dius Ptolemy are best known. Aristarchus of Samos, who lived 
in the third century b.c., held that the earth revolves about the 
sun as a fixed center, and rotates on its own axis. He was the 
Greek Copernicus. But his theory was rejected by his contem¬ 
poraries and successors. 

Claudius Ptolemy lived in Egypt about the middle of the second 
century after Christ. He compiled a vast work which preserved 
and transmitted to later times almost all the knowledge of the 
ancient world on astronomical and geographical subjects. In this 
way it has happened that his name has become attached to vari¬ 
ous doctrines and views respecting the universe, though these 
probably were not originated by him. The phrase "Ptolemaic 
System,” however, links his name inseparably, whether the honor 
be fairly his or not, with that conception of the solar system set 
forth in his works, which continued to be the received theory from 
his time until Copernicus, fourteen centuries later. 

Ptolemy combated the theory of Aristarchus in regard to the 
rotation and revolution of the earth; yet he believed the earth 
to be a globe, and supported this view by exactly the same 
arguments that we today use to prove the doctrine. 

References. Grote, G. (ten-volume ed.), vol. iv, pp. 65-94 (Ionic philoso¬ 
phers and Pythagoras); vol. vii, pp. 32-172 (the Sophists and Socrates). Burt, 
B. C., A Brief History of Greek Philosophy. Mayor, J. B., Sketch of Ancient 
Philosophy. Davidson, T., The Education of the Greek People, chap, v (on the 
teachings of Socrates). Leonard, W. E., Socrates: Master of Life. Zeller, 
E., The Stoics, Epicureans, and Sceptics. All these works, except Leonard’s 
Socrates, are for the teacher and the advanced student. 


CHAPTER XXIII 

SOCIAL LIFE OF THE GREEKS 


220 . Education. Education at Sparta, .where it was chiefly 
gymnastic, as we have seen, was a state affair; but at Athens and 
throughout Greece generally, the youth were trained in private 
schools. These were 
of all grades, rang¬ 
ing from those kept 
by the most obscure 
teachers, who gath¬ 
ered their pupils in 
some recess of the 
street, to those es¬ 
tablished in the 
Athenian Academy 
and the Lyceum by 
such philosophers as 
Plato and Aristotle. 

It was only the 
boys who received 
education. In the 
nursery the boy was taught the beautiful myths and stories 
of the national mythology and religion. 1 At about seven he 
entered school, being led to and from the place of training 



Fig. 57. A Greek School. (From a vase paint¬ 
ing of the fifth century B.c.) 

The master on the left is teaching the boy seated in front 
of him to play the lyre; the master in the center of the 
picture is giving instruction in reading or in recitation to 
the boy standing before him. The man seated and lean¬ 
ing on a staff is probably the pedagogue who has brought 
the boys to the school 


1 Infanticide was almost universally practiced throughout Greece. (At Thebes, 
however, the exposure of children was prohibited by severe laws.) Such philosophers 
as Plato and Aristotle saw nothing in the custom to condemn. Among the Spartans, as 
we have already learned, the state determined what infants might be preserved, con¬ 
demning the weakly or ill-formed to be cast out to die. At Athens and in other states 
the right to expose his child was given to the father. The infant was abandoned in some 
desert place, or left in some frequented spot in the hope that it might be picked up and 
cared for. Greek literature, like that of every other people of antiquity, is filled with 
stories and dramas all turning upon points afforded by this common practice. 

141 







142 


SOCIAL LIFE OF THE GREEKS 


[§ 220 


by an old slave, who bore the name of pedagogue , which in 
Greek means a guide or leader of boys, not a teacher. His 
studies were grammar, music and gymnastics, the aim of the 
course being to secure a symmetrical development of mind 
and body alike. 

Grammar included reading, writing, and arithmetic; music, 
which embraced a wide range of mental accomplishments, trained 

the boy to appreciate the masterpieces of 
the great poets, to contribute his part 
to the musical diversions of private enter¬ 
tainments, and to join in the sacred cho¬ 
ruses and in the paean of the battlefield. 
The exercises of the palestrae and the gym¬ 
nasia trained him for the Olympic contests, 
or for those sterner hand-to-hand battle 
struggles in which so much depended upon 
personal strength and dexterity. 

Upon reaching maturity the youth was 
enrolled in the list of citizens. But his 
graduation from school was his " com¬ 
mencement” in a much more real sense 
than with the average modern graduate. 
Never was there a people besides the 
Greeks whose daily life was so emphati¬ 
cally a discipline in liberal culture. The 
schools of the philosophers, the debates 
of the popular assembly, the practice of the law courts, the 
masterpieces of a divine art, the religious processions, the Pan- 
hellenic games,— all these were splendid educational agencies, 
which produced and maintained a standard of average intelli¬ 
gence and culture among the citizens of the Greek cities that 
probably has never been attained among any other people on 
the earth. Freeman, quoted approvingly by Mahaffy, says 
that "the average intelligence of the assembled Athenian citi¬ 
zens was higher than that of our [the English] House of 
Commons.” 



Fig. 58. Pedagogue 
and Children. (Terra¬ 
cotta group from Tana- 
gra; Louvre, Paris) 





§221] 


THEATRICAL ENTERTAINMENTS 


143 


221 . Social Position of Woman. Although there are in Greek 
literature some exquisitely beautiful portraitures of ideal woman¬ 
hood, still the general tone of the literature betrays a deep con¬ 
tempt for woman. Thucydides quotes with seeming approval the 
Greek proverb, "That woman is best who is least spoken of 
among men, whether for good or for evil/’ 

This unworthy conception of woman of course consigned her 
to a narrow and inferior place in the Greek home. Her position 
may be defined as being about halfway between oriental seclu¬ 
sion and modern or Western freedom. Her main duties were to 
cook and spin, and to oversee the domestic slaves, of whom she 
herself was practically one. In the fashionable society of Ionian 
cities she was seldom allowed to appear in public, or to meet, 
even in her own house, the male friends of her husband. In 
Sparta, however, and in Dorian states generally, she was accorded 
much more freedom, and was a really important factor in society. 

222 . Theatrical Entertainments. Among the ancient Greeks 
the theater was a state establishment, "a part of the constitution.” 
This arose from the religious origin and character of the drama 
(sect. 201), all matters pertaining to the popular worship being 
the care and concern of the state. Theatrical performances, being 
religious acts, were presented only during religious festivals,— 
certain festivals observed in honor of Dionysus,— and were at¬ 
tended by all classes, rich and poor, men, women, and children. 
The women, however, were, it would seem, permitted to witness 
tragedies only; the comic stage was too gross to allow of their 
presence. The spectators sat under the open sky; and the pieces 
followed one after the other in close succession from early morning 
till nightfall. 

While the better class of actors were highly honored, ordinary 
players were held in very low esteem, in which matter the Greek 
stage presents a parallel to that of England in the sixteenth cen¬ 
tury. And as in the Elizabethan age the writers of plays were 
frequently also the performers, so in Greece, particularly during 
the early period of the drama, the author often became an actor— 
/Eschylus and Sophocles both assumed this role—and assisted 


144 


SOCIAL LIFE OF THE GREEKS 


[§ 223 


in the presentation of his own pieces. Still another parallel is 
found in the fact that the female parts in the Greek dramas, as 
in the early English theater, were taken by men. 

The theater exerted a great influence upon Greek life. It per¬ 
formed for ancient Greek society somewhat the same service as 
that rendered to modern society by the pulpit and the press. 
During the best days of Hellas the frequent rehearsal upon the 
stage of the chief incidents in the lives of the gods and heroes 
served to deepen and strengthen the religious faith of the people; 

and, in later times, 
when with Mace¬ 
donian supremacy 
the days of de¬ 
cline came, the stage 
was one of the 
chief agents in the 
diffusion of Greek 
thought and literary 
culture throughout 
the Hellenistic world 
of the East. 

223 . Banquets and Symposia. Banquets and drinking parties 
among the Greeks possessed some features which set them apart 
from similar entertainments among other people. The banquet 
proper was partaken, in later times, by the guests in a reclining 
position, upon couches or divans arranged about the table in the 
oriental manner. After the usual courses a libation was poured out 
and a hymn sung in honor of the gods, and then followed that 
characteristic part of the entertainment known as the " symposium.” 

The symposium was " the intellectual side of the feast.” It con¬ 
sisted of general conversation, riddles, and convivial songs rendered 
to the accompaniment of the lyre passed from hand to hand. 
Generally professional singers and musicians, dancing girls, jugglers, 
and jesters were called in to contribute to the merrymaking. The 
symposium must at times, when the conversation was sustained by 
such persons as Socrates and Aristophanes, have been "a feast 



Fig. 59. A Banquet Scene 






































§ 224] 


SLAVERY 


145 


of reason and a flow of soul” indeed. Xenophon in his Banquet 
and Plato in his Symposium have each left us a striking report of 
such an entertainment. 

224 . Slavery. There is a dark side to Greek life. Hellenic art, 
culture, refinement,—"these good things were planted, like ex¬ 
quisite exotic flowers, upon the black, rank soil of slavery.” 

Slaves were very numerous in Greece. No exact estimate can 
be made of their number. Almost every freeman was a slave owner. 
It was accounted a real hardship to have to get along with less 
than half a dozen slaves. The slave class was formed in various 
ways. In the prehistoric period the fortunes of war had brought 
the entire population of whole provinces into a servile condition, 
as in certain parts of the Peloponnesus. During later times the 
ordinary captives of war still further augmented the ranks of these 
unfortunates. Their number was also largely added to by the 
slave traffic carried on with the barbarian peoples of Asia. Crim¬ 
inals and debtors, too, were often condemned to servitude; while 
foundlings were usually brought up as slaves. 

The relation of master and slave was regarded by the ordinary 
Greek as a perfectly natural one. Barbarians in his view were 
slaves by nature ; that is, their inferiority in soul was such that 
it was manifest nature intended them to be slaves, just as she 
intended domestic animals to be the servants of man. 

In general, Greek slaves were not treated harshly, judging their 
treatment by the standard of humanity that prevailed in antiquity. 
Some held places of honor in the family, and enjoyed the confi¬ 
dence and even the friendship of their master. 

References. Blumner, H., The Home Life of the Ancient Greeks. Davidson, 
T., The Education of the Greek People and Ancient Educational Ideals. Walden, 
J. W. H., The Universities of Ancient Greece. Mahaffy, J. B., Social Life in 
Greece ; Old Greek Education ; Greek Life and Thought (selected chapters); and 
Old Greek Life. Felton, C. C., Greece , Ancient and Modern , vol. i, pp. 271-511 
(pictures various aspects of the life of Greece). Guhl, E., and Koner, W., 
Life of the Greeks and the Romans (first part). Gulick, C. B., Life of the Ancient 
Greeks. Tucker, T. G., Life in Ancient Athens. 


DIVISION III. ROME 


CHAPTER XXIV 

ITALY AND ITS EARLY INHABITANTS 

225 . Divisions of the Italian Peninsula. The Italian peninsula 

is generally conceived as consisting of three sections—Northern, 

Central, and Southern Italy. The first comprises the great basin of 

the river Po ( Padus ), lying between the Alps and the Apennines. 

In ancient times this part of Italy included three districts, namely, 

Liguria, Gallia Cisalpina, and Venetia. Liguria embraced the 

southwestern and Venetia the northeastern part of Northern 

• 

Italy. Gallia Cisalpina lay between these two districts, occupy¬ 
ing the finest portion of the valley of the Po. It received its 
name, which means "Gaul on this [the Italian] side of the Alps,” 
from the Gallic tribes that about the fifth century before our 
era found their way over the mountains and settled upon these 
rich lands. 

The countries of Central Italy were Etruria, Latium, and Cam¬ 
pania, facing the Western, or Tyrrhenian, Sea; Umbria and 
Picenum, looking out over the Eastern, or Adriatic, Sea; and. 
Samnium and the country of the Sabines, occupying the rough 
mountain districts of the Apennines. 

Southern Italy comprised the ancient districts of Apulia, Lucania, 
Calabria, and Bruttium. Calabria 1 formed the "heel,” and Brut- 
tium the "toe,” of the bootlike peninsula. The coast region of 
Southern Italy, as we have already learned, was called Magna 
Graecia, or "Great Greece,” on account of the number and im¬ 
portance of the Greek cities that during the period of Hellenic 
supremacy were established on these shores. 

1 During the Middle Ages this name was transferred to the toe of the peninsula, 
and this forms the Calabria of today. 

146 




Fsesulse^,-^ / > 

,/v irw\T 
oTolaterr^vr 
1 ArretiumO 


Nikaia 


itinumo 


Yolsinii 


Telaiuou 


CORSICA 


N omeVtui 


- n TibuiO 

Sikl t ; "<M>nesi 
a i, °Yora/n 

fig W%£ 

\ Vol »n*n* 


TuSculumo- 

Alba DQngaO 
I aviniumP-^ a 


° Boyianum 


p °n^R 


Cumae ot 
jiver 


Poseidoiiiqfo 


Tlerftclea 


Palinuri Pr. 


baris 


/€OU>€ l A |j 


‘anormos 


ulians/ T £ 

, /OjAetna Mt 

1 S ^AV!^Ca taue 


Lily iaeum 


Selinus 


Acragaa 


Syracuse'L ortygia 


Ecnomus 


Cartha 


ITALY 

BEFORE THE GROWTH OF 
THE ROMAN EMPIRE 


Greeks 1 1 

Gauls 1 1 

Penefjans[^Il 

Italians 1 1 

Ligurians dtc. 1 1 

JPhceniciansV 1 


Etruscans L ..1 

— 






































































































































































226 ] 


GEOGRAPHICAL FEATURES 


147 


The large island of Sicily, lying just off the mainland on the 
south, may be regarded simply as a detached fragment of Italy, 
so intimately has its history been connected with that of the 
peninsula. 

226 . Mountains, Rivers, and Harbors. Italy, like the other 
two peninsulas of southern Europe,— Greece and Spain,—has a 
high mountain barrier, the Alps, along its northern frontier. Cor¬ 
responding to the Pindus range in Greece, the Apennines run as 
a great central ridge through the peninsula. Eastward of the 
ancient Latium they spread out into broad uplands, which in early 
times nourished a race of hardy mountaineers, who incessantly 
harried the territories of the more civilized lowlanders of Latium 
and Campania. Thus the physical conformation of this part of 
the peninsula shaped large sections of Roman history, just as 
in the case of Scotland the physical contrast between the north 
and the south was reflected for centuries in the antagonisms of 
Highlanders and Lowlanders. 

Italy has only one really great river, the Po, which drains the 
large northern plain, already mentioned, lying between the Alps 
and the Apennines. The streams running down the eastern slope 
of the Apennines are short and of little volume. Among the rivers 
draining the western slopes of the Apennines, the one of greatest 
historic interest is the Tiber, on the banks of which Rome arose. 

The finest Italian harbors, of which that of Naples is the most 
celebrated, are on the western coast. The eastern coast is precipi¬ 
tous, with few good havens. Italy thus faces the west. What 
makes it important for us to notice this circumstance is the fact 
that Greece faces the east, and that thus these two peninsulas, as 
the historian Mommsen expresses it, turn their backs to each other. 
This brought it about that Rome and the cities of Greece had 
almost no dealings with one another for many centuries. 

227 . Early Inhabitants of Italy: the Etruscans, the Greeks, 
and the Italians. There were in early historic times three chief 
races in Italy—the Etruscans, the Greeks, and the Italians. The 
Etruscans and the Italians had found their way into the peninsula 
in prehistoric times; the Greeks had come later. 


148 ITALY AND ITS EARLY INHABITANTS [§ 227 


The Etruscans, a wealthy and cultured seafaring people of 
uncertain race and origin, dwelt in Etruria, now called Tuscany 
after them. 1 They seem to have come into Italy from the east 
by way of the sea. Before the rise of the Roman people they 
were the leading race in the peninsula. Certain elements in their 

culture lead us to believe that 
they had learned much from the 
cities of Magna Graecia. The 
Etruscans in their turn became 
the teachers of the early Romans 
and imparted to them certain 
elements of civilization, includ¬ 
ing military usages, hints in the 
art of building, and various re¬ 
ligious ideas and rites. 

With the Greek cities in South¬ 
ern Italy and in Sicily we have 
already formed an acquaintance. 
Through themedium of thesecul- 
tured communities the Romans 
were taught the use of letters 
and given valuable suggestions 
in matters of law and constitu¬ 
tional government. 

The Italians, peoples of Indo-European speech, embraced many 
tribes or communities (Latins, Umbrians, Sabines, Samnites, etc.) 
that occupied nearly all Central and a considerable part of South¬ 
ern Italy. 3 They were kin to the Greeks and brought with them 
into the peninsula, where they probably mixed with an aboriginal 
population, those customs, manners, beliefs, and institutions that 

1 In early times they had settlements in Northern Italy and in Campania. 

2 This interesting memorial of Etruscan art was acquired by the Metropolitan 
Museum of New \ ork City at a cost of $48,000. It was found in an ancient Etruscan 
cemetery (1901). Almost every part of the chariot, including the wheels, was sheathed 
in figured bronze. The relic probably dates from the seventh century B. c. 

Notice carefully the large area covered by the Italian color on the accompanying 
map. The Italian race formed the best part of the material out of which the real 
Roman nation was formed. 



Fig. 60. An Etruscan Chariot 2 
(From a photograph) 



§ 227] 


EARLY INHABITANTS OF ITALY 


149 


formed the common possession of the Indo-European peoples. 
Their life was for the most part that of shepherds and farmers. 

The most important of the Italian peoples were the Latins, who 
dwelt in Latium. According to tradition there were in all Latium 
in prehistoric times thirty towns or petty city-states, like those of 
early Greece. These had formed an alliance among themselves 
known as the Latin League. At the dawn of history the leadership 
in this confederacy was held by Rome, which was situated on a 
cluster of low hills on the left bank of the Tiber, about fifteen 
miles from the sea. This little fortress town was doubtless in¬ 
tended as an outpost to protect the northern frontier of Latium 
against the Etruscans, the most powerful and aggressive neighbors 
of the Latin people. 

The city of Rome, which was destined to play such a great part in 
history, had been formed by the union in prehistoric times of three 
or more settlements, the dwellings of which were upon the slopes 
or at the foot of the hills just mentioned. Its location was for¬ 
tunate. Its distance from the sea protected it against the dep¬ 
redations of the pirates who in early times swarmed in the 
Mediterranean, while its location on the chief stream of Cen¬ 
tral Italy naturally made it the center of the lucrative trade of a 
wide reach of inland territory bordering upon the Tiber and its 
tributaries. 

Concerning the government and the religious and social arrange¬ 
ments of the Roman community, and concerning the fortunes of 
the city of Rome under its early kings, we shall give a brief 
account in the next chapter. 

References. Mommsen, T., vol. i, chaps, i, ii. Freeman, E. A., Historical 
Geography of Europe, vol. i (text), pp. J— 9, 43 — 49 - dozER, H. F., Classical 
Geography , chaps, ix, x. Dennis, G., The Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria , 
vol. i, introduction (the author probably exaggerates the debt which the early 
civilization of Rome owed to the preceding culture of Etruria). Leland, C. G., 
Etruscan-Roman Remains. 


I 



CHAPTER XXV 

ROMAN INSTITUTIONS; ROME UNDER THE KINGS 

I. SOCIETY AND GOVERNMENT 

228 . The Roman Family ; the Worship of Ancestors. At the 

base of Roman society and forming its smallest unit was the family. 
This was a very different group from that which among us bears 
the same name. The typical Roman family consisted of the father 
(paterfamilias) and mother, the sons together with their wives and 
sons, and the unmarried daughters. 

The most important feature or element of this family group was 
the unrestrained authority of the father. In early times his power 
over every member of the family was in law absolute, though cus¬ 
tom required that in cases involving severe punishment he should 
seek the advice of a council of near relatives. He could for mis¬ 
conduct sell a son of mature years into slavery or even put him 
to death. 

The father was the high priest of the family, for the family liad 
a common worship. This was the cult of domestic divinities and 
the spirits of ancestors. These latter were believed to linger near 
the old hearth. If provided with frequent offerings of meat and 
drink, they would, it was thought, watch over the living members 
of the family and aid and prosper them in their daily work and 
in all their undertakings. If they were neglected, however, these 

*5° 





§ 229 ] 


THE FAMILY IN ROMAN HISTORY 


I5i 

spirits became restless and suffered pain, and in their anger would 
bring trouble in some form upon their undutiful kinsmen. 

229 . The Place of the Family in Roman History. It would 
be difficult to overestimate the influence of the family upon the 
history and destiny of Rome. It was the cradle of at least some 
of those splendid virtues of the early Romans that contributed so 
much to the strength and greatness of Rome, and that helped to 
give her the dominion of the world. It was in the atmosphere of 
the family that were nourished in the Roman youth the virtues of 
obedience, of deference to authority, and of submission to law and 
custom. When the youth became a citizen, obedience to magis¬ 
trates and respect for law were with him an instinct and indeed 
almost a religion. And, on the other hand, the exercise of the 
parental authority in the family taught the Roman how to com¬ 
mand as well as how to obey—how to exercise authority with 
wisdom, moderation, and justice. 

230 . Dependents of the Family : Clients and Slaves. Besides 
those members constituting the family proper there were attached 
to it usually a number of dependents. These were the clients and 
the slaves. The client was a person standing in a semi-servile rela¬ 
tion to the head of the family, who was called his patron. The 
class of clients was probably made up largely of homeless refugees 
or strangers from other cities, or of freed slaves dwelling in their 
former master’s house. They were free to engage in business at 
Rome and to accumulate property, though whatever they gathered 
was legally the property of the patron. 

The duty of the patron was, in general, to look after the interests 
of his client, especially to represent him before the legal tribunals. 
The duty of the client, on the other hand, was faithfulness to his 
patron, and the making of contributions of money to aid him in 
meeting unusual expenses. 

The slaves constituted merely a part of the family property. 
There were only a few slaves in the early Roman family, and these 
were held for service chiefly within the home and not in the fields. 
It was not until later times, when luxury crept into Rome, that 
the number of domestic slaves became excessively great. 


152 


ROMAN INSTITUTIONS 


[§231 


231. The Clan, the Curia, the Tribe, and the City. Above 
the family stood the clan or gens. This was probably in the earli¬ 
est times simply the expanded family, the members of which had 
outgrown the remembrance of their exact relationship. Yet they 
all believed themselves to have had a common ancestor and called 
themselves by his name, as the Fabii, the Claudii, the Julii, and 
so on. The gens, like the family, had a common altar. 

The next largest group or division of the community was the 
curia. This was the most important political division of the people 
in early Rome. Levies for the army were made by curiae, and vot¬ 
ing in the primitive assembly of the people, as we shall explain 
presently, was done by these same bodies. There were thirty curiae 
in primitive Rome. 

Above the curiae was the tribe, the largest subdivision of the 
community. In early Rome there were three tribes, each com¬ 
prising ten curiae. 

These several groups made up the community of early Rome. 
This city, like the cities of ancient Greece, was a city-state; 
that is, an independent sovereign body like a modern nation. 
As such it possessed a constitution and government, concerning 
which, we will next give a short account. 

232. The King and the Senate. At the head of the early 
Roman state stood a king, the father of his people, holding essen¬ 
tially the same relation to them that the fgther of a family held to 
his household. He was at once ruler of the nation, commander of 
the army, and judge and high priest of his people. He was pre¬ 
ceded by servants called lictors, each bearing a bundle of rods 
(the fasces) with an ax bound therein, the symbol of his power 
to punish by flogging and by putting to death (Fig. 63). 

Next to the king stood the Senate, a body composed of the 
" fathers,” or heads of the ancient clans of the community. Two 
important functions of the Senate were to give counsel to the 
king and to cast the decisive vote on all measures passed by the 
assembly of citizens. 

233. The Popular Assembly. The popular assembly ( comitia 
curiata ) comprised all the freemen of Rome. The manner of 


§ 234] THE RIGHTS OF ROMAN CITIZENSHIP 


153 


taking a vote in this assembly should be noted, for the usage here 
was followed in all the later popular assemblies of the republican 
period. The voting was not by individuals but by curiae; that is, 
each curia had one vote, and the measure before the body was 
carried or lost according as a majority of the curiae voted for or 
against it. 

It should be further noted that this assembly was not a repre¬ 
sentative body, like a modern legislature, but a primary assembly ; 
that is, a meeting like a New England town meeting. All of the 
later assemblies at Rome were like this primitive assembly. The 
Romans never learned, or at least never employed, the principle of 
representation. How important the bearing of this was upon the 
political fortunes of Rome we shall learn later. 

234. The Rights of Roman Citizenship. The rights of the 
Roman citizen were divided into private rights and public rights. 
The chief private rights were two, namely, the right of trade and 
the right to intermarry with Roman citizens. The right of trade 
or commerce was the right to acquire, to hold, and to bequeath 
property (both personal and landed) according to the forms of the 
Roman law. This in the ancient city was an important right and 
privilege; it was in general denied to aliens. The right to inter¬ 
marry with Roman citizens was especially important, because 
such a marriage carried with if the paternal power (sect. 228 ) 
and other civil rights. 

The three chief public or political rights of the Roman citizen 
were the right of voting in the public assemblies, the right of 
holding office, and the right of appeal from the decision of a 
magistrate to the people. 

These rights taken together constituted the most highly valued 
rights and privileges of the Roman citizen. What we should 
particularly notice is that the Romans adopted the practice of 
bestowing these rights in installments, so to speak. For instance, 
the inhabitants of one vanquished city would be given a part of 
the private rights of citizenship, those of another perhaps all of 
this class of rights, while upon the inhabitants of a third place 
would be bestowed all the rights, both private and public. This 


*54 


ROMAN INSTITUTIONS 


[§ 235 


usage created many different classes of citizens in the Roman 
state ; and this, as will appear later, was one of the most important 
matters connected with the internal history of Rome. 

235. Patricians and Plebeians. In early Rome there were two 
classes or orders, known as patricians and plebeians. The patricians 
formed the hereditary nobility of the state. They alone possessed 
all the rights of citizenship as enumerated in the preceding section. 

The plebeians (from plebs, "the multitude”) were the humbler 
members of the community. Some of this class were shopkeepers, 
artisans, and manual laborers living in Rome; but the larger 
number were small landowners living outside the city in scattered 
hamlets, and tilling with their own hands their little farms of a 
few acres in extent. 

From most of the rights and privileges of the full citizen the 
plebeians were wholly shut out. They could not contract a legal 
marriage with one of the patrician order. They could not hold 
office nor appeal from the decision of a magistrate. A large part of 
the early history of Rome as a republic is made up of the struggles 
of these plebeians to better their economic condition and to secure 
for themselves social and political equality with the patricians. 


II. RELIGION 

236. The Place of Religion in Roman History. In Rome, as 
in the ancient cities of Greece, religion, aside from the domestic 
and local cults, was an affair of the state. The magistrates of the 
city possessed a sort of priestly character; and since almost every 
official act was connected in some way with the rites of the temple 
or the sacrifices of the altar, it happens that the political history 
of the Romans is closely interwoven with their religion. 

237. Roman Deities. Chief of the Roman deities was Jupiter, 
identical in all essential attributes with the Hellenic Zeus. He 
was the special protector of the Roman people. To him, together 
with Juno his wife and Minerva goddess of wisdom, was conse¬ 
crated a magnificent temple upon the summit of the Capitoline 
Hill, overlooking the forum and the city. 


i 


§ 238 ] 


ORACLES AND DIVINATION 


155 


Mars, the god of war, was the favorite deity and the fabled 
father of the Roman race, who were fond of calling themselves the 
''Children of Mars.” They proved themselves worthy offspring of 
the war-god. Martial games and festivals were celebrated in his 
honor during the first month of the Roman year—the month 
which bore, and still bears, in his honor, the name of March. 

Janus was a double-faced deity to whom the month of January 
was sacred, as were also all gates and doors. The gates of his 
temple were always kept open in 
time of war and shut in time of 
peace. 

The fire upon the household 
hearth was regarded as the symbol 
of the goddess Vesta. Her wor¬ 
ship was a favorite one with the 
Romans. The nation, too, as a 
single great family, had a common 
national hearth in the temple of 
Vesta, where the sacred fires were 
kept burning from generation to 
generation by six virgins, daughters 
of the Roman state (see sect. 7 ). 

238. Oracles and Divination. The Romans, like the Greeks, 
thought that the will of the gods was communicated to men by 
means of oracles, and by strange sights, unusual events, or singular 
coincidences. There were no true oracles at Rome. The Romans, 
therefore, often had recourse to those of the Greeks. Particularly in 
great emergencies did they seek advice from the celebrated oracle 
of Apollo at Delphi. From Etruria was introduced the art of divi¬ 
nation, which consisted in discovering the will of the gods by the 
appearance of the inward parts of victims slain for the sacrifices. 

239. The Sacred Colleges. The four chief sacred colleges or 
societies were the Keepers of the Sibylline Books, the College of 
Augurs, the College of Pontiffs, and the College of Heralds. 

The Sibylline Books were volumes written in Greek, the origin 
of which was lost in fable. They were kept in a stone chest in a 



Fig. 61. Head of Janus. (From 
a Roman coin) 


ROMAN INSTITUTIONS 


[§ 239 


156 


vault beneath the Capitoline temple, and special custodians were 
appointed to take charge of them and interpret them. The books 
were consulted only in times of extreme danger. 

The duty of the members of the College of Augurs was to inter¬ 
pret the omens, or auspices,—which were casual sights or appear¬ 
ances, particularly the flight of birds,— by which means it was 
believed that Jupiter made known his will. Great skill was re¬ 
quired in the "taking of the auspices,” as it was called. No busi¬ 
ness of importance, 
public or private, 
was entered upon 
without the auspices 
being first consulted 
to ascertain whether 
they were favorable. 

The College of 
Pontiffs was so 
called probably be¬ 
cause one of the 
duties of its members 
was to keep in re¬ 
pair a certain bridge 
(pons) over the Tiber. This guild was the most important of all 
the religious institutions of the Romans; for to the pontiffs 
belonged the superintendence of all religious matters. The head 
of the college was called Pontijex Maximus , or "Chief Bridge 
Builder,” which title was assumed by the Roman emperors, and 
after them by the Christian bishops of Rome; and thus the name 
has come down to our times. 

The College of Heralds ( Fetiales ) had the care of all public 
matters pertaining to foreign nations. Thus, if the Roman people 
had suffered any wrong from another state, and war was deter¬ 
mined upon, then it was the duty of a herald to proceed to the 
frontier of the enemy’s country and hurl over the boundary a 
spear dipped in blood. This was a declaration of war. The 
Romans were very careful in the observance of this ceremony. 



Fig. 62. Divining by Means of the Appear¬ 
ance of the Entrails of a Sacrificial 

Victim 
























§ 240 ] 


i57 


THE LEGENDARY KINGS 

* 

III. ROME UNDER THE KINGS (LEGENDARY DATE 

753-509 b.c.) 

240. The Legendary Kings. The early government of Rome 
was a monarchy. Tradition tells of the reigns of seven kings of 
whom the first was Romulus, the founder of the city, and the last 
Tarquinius Superbus, a haughty tyrant, whose oppressions led 
to the abolition by the 
people of the office of 
king. 

The tradition hope¬ 
lessly blends fact and 
fable. Respecting Ro¬ 
man affairs, however, 
under the last three 
kings (the Tarquins), 
who were of Etruscan 
origin, some import¬ 
ant things are related, 
upon the substantial 
truth of which we may 
rely with a fair degree 
of certainty. 

241. Growth of Rome under the Tarquins. The Tarquins are 
represented by the legends as having extended their authority over 
much of Latium. The position of supremacy thus given Rome 
was attended by the rapid growth of the city in population and 
importance. The original walls soon became too- strait for the 
increasing multitudes; new ramparts were built which, with a 
great circuit of seven miles, swept around the entire cluster of 
seven hills that formed the site of the city, whence the name that 
Rome acquired of the r 'City of the Seven Hills.” 

On a reclaimed tract of marshy ground was established the 
Forum, the public market place of the early city. At one end of 
this public square, as we should call it, was the Comitium , an in¬ 
closure where assemblies for voting purposes were held. In 



The Seven Hills of Rome 









158 


ROME UNDER THE KINGS 


[§ 242 


later times this assembling place was enlarged and decorated with 
various monuments and surrounded with splendid buildings and 
porticoes. For upwards of a thousand years this spot was one 
of the chief centers of the life and activities of the ancient world. 

The tradition tells further of military and constitutional re¬ 
forms effected by the second Etruscan king, Servius Tullius by 
name, which, giving the plebeians a place in the army,— from 
which they were at first excluded,—were an important step toward 
the establishment of social and political equality between the two 
great classes in the state. These reforms, it is true, as the his¬ 
torian Mommsen maintains, assigned to the plebeians duties 
chiefly, and not rights; but being called upon to discharge the 
most important duties of citizens, it was not long before they 
demanded all the rights of citizens—and as the bearers of arms 
they were able, as we shall see, to enforce their demands. 

The assembling place of the army was just outside the city 
walls, on a large plain called the Campus Martins , or Field of 
Mars. The meeting was called the comitia centuriata, or the 
Assembly of Centuries . 1 

242. The Expulsion of the Kings. The legends, as already 
noted, make Tarquinius Superbus the last king of Rome. He is 
represented as a monstrous tyrant, whose arbitrary acts caused 
both patricians and plebeians to unite and drive him and all his 
house into exile. This event, according to the Roman annalists, 
occurred in the year 509 b.c., only one year later than the expulsion 
of the tyrants from Athens (sect. 131 ). 

References. Plutarch, Romulus and Numa (in the case of these particular 
lives the student will of course bear in mind that he is reading Roman folklore ; 
but it is worth while for the student of Roman history to know what the 
Romans of later times themselves believed respecting their early kings). 
Mommsen, T., vol. i, bk. i, chaps, iv-xv. Seignobos, C. (Fairly ed.), Histoiy 
of the Roman People , chaps, ii. iv. Pf.i.ham, H. F., Outlines of Roman Histoiy , 
bk. i, chaps, ii, iii. Ihne, W. R., Early Rome. Fowler, W. W., The City-state 
of the Greeks and Romans , chaps, ii, iii. Abbott, F. F., Roman Political Insti¬ 
tutions, chaps, i, ii. Johnston, H. W., The Private Life of the Romans , pp. 28-32. 

1 The unit of the military organization was the century, probably containing in early 
times, as the name ( centuria ) indicates, one hundred men. 


CHAPTER XXVI 


THE EARLY REPUBLIC; PLEBEIANS BECOME CITIZENS WITH 

FULL RIGHTS 

(509-367 B.C.) 

243. Republican Magistrates: the Consuls and the Dictator. 
With the monarchy overthrown the people set to work to reor¬ 
ganize the government. In place of the king there were elected 
two patrician magistrates, called at first prcetors, or ''leaders/’ 
but later consuls , or "colleagues.” These magistrates were chosen 
for one year, and were invested at first with all the powers, save 
some priestly functions, that had been exercised by the king. In 
public each consul was attended, as the king had been, by twelve 
lictors, bearing the "dread fasces” (sect. 232 ). 

Each consul had the power of obstructing the acts or vetoing 
the commands of the other. This division of authority weakened 
the executive, so that in times of great public danger it was neces¬ 
sary to supersede the consuls by the appointment of a special 
officer bearing the title of dictator , whose term of office was limited 
to six months, but whose power during this time was as unlimited 
as that of the king had been. 

244. First Secession of the Plebeians (494 b.c.). A troublous 
period followed the expulsion of the Tarquins. During this time 
of disorder the poor plebeians fell more deeply in debt to the 
wealthy class, and payment was exacted with heartless severity. 
A debtor became the absolute property of his creditor, who might 
sell him as a slave to pay the debt, and in some cases even put 
him to death. 

The situation was intolerable. The plebeians, so tradition tells, 
resolved to secede from Rome and build a new city for themselves 
on a neighboring eminence, known afterwards as the Sacred Mount. 
Having on one occasion been called to arms to repel an invasion, 



i6o THE EARLY REPUBLIC [§245 


they refused to march out against the enemy, but instead marched 
awav in a body from Rome to the spot selected beforehand and 
began to make preparations for erecting new homes. 

245. The Covenant and 
the Tribunes. The patri¬ 
cians well knew that such a 
division would prove ruinous 
to the state, and that the 
plebeians must be persuaded 
to give up their enterprise 
and come back to Rome. A 
commission was sent to treat 
with the insurgents. The 
plebeians were at first ob¬ 
durate, but at last were 
persuaded to yield to the 
entreaties of the embassy to 
return, being won to this 
mind, so it is said, by one 
of the wise senators, who 
made use of the well-known 
fable of the Body and the 
Members. 

The following covenant 
was entered into and bound 

Ii(i. 63. Lictors with Iasces by mos t solemn oaths: 

The symbolic fasces borne by these officers were The debts of the poor 

probably of Etruscan origin. The Tarquins are . , . , 

said to have brought them to Rome, along with plebeians were to be Can- 

other insignia of the kingly office celed and debtors held in 

slavery set free; and there 
were to be chosen two plebeian magistrates (the number was soon 
increased to ten), called tribunes , whose duty it should be to watch 
over and protect the plebeians. 

That the tribunes might be the protectors of the plebeians in 
something more than name, they were invested with an extraor¬ 
dinary power known as the jus auxilii, "the right of aid”; that 



















§ 246] BORDER WARS AND BORDER TALES 161 

is, they were given the right, should any patrician magistrate at¬ 
tempt to deal wrongfully with a plebeian, to annul his act or stop 
his proceeding. 

The persons of the tribunes were made sacrosanct, that is, 
inviolable, like the persons of heralds. Anyone interrupting a 
tribune in the discharge of his duties or doing him any violence 
was declared an outlaw whom anyone might kill. That the tribunes 
might be always easily found, they were not allowed to go more 
than one mile beyond the city walls. Their houses were to be open 
night and day, that any plebeian unjustly dealt with might flee 
thither for protection and refuge. 

We cannot overestimate the importance of this establishment of 
the plebeian tribunate. Under the protection and leadership of 
the tribunes, who were themselves protected by oaths of inviolable 
sanctity, the plebeians carried on a struggle for a share in the 
offices and dignities of the state which never ceased until the 
Roman government, as yet only republican in name, became in 
fact a real democracy, in which patrician and plebeian shared 
equally in all rights and privileges. 

246. Border Wars and Border Tales ; Cincinnatus. The chief 
enemies of early Rome and her Latin allies were the Volscians, 
the iEquians, the Sabines, and the Etruscans. For more than a 
hundred years after the founding of the Republic, Rome, either 
alone or in connection with her confederates, was almost constantly 
fighting one or another or all of these peoples. But these oper¬ 
ations cannot be regarded as real wars. They were, on both sides, 
for the most part mere plundering forays or cattle-raiding expedi¬ 
tions into the enemy’s territories. We shall probably not get a 
wrong idea of their real character if we liken them to the early 
so-called border wars between England and Scotland. Like the 
Scottish wars, they were embellished by the story-tellers with the 
most picturesque tales. One of the best known of these is that 
of Cincinnatus. 

According to the tradition, while one of the consuls was away 
fighting the Sabines, the ^Equians defeated the forces of the 
other and shut them up in a narrow valley whence escape seemed 


1-62 


THE EARLY REPUBLIC 


[§ 247 


impossible. There was great terror in Rome when news of the 
situation of the army was brought to the city. The Senate im¬ 
mediately appointed Cincinnatus, a grand old patrician, dictator. 
The commissioners who carried to him the message from the 
Senate found him upon his little farm across the Tiber, at work 



Fidenai 


-'"'■'tHHI s a 

Altui'Longa ‘ 


nagniff® 


Ostia; 


Xaureatunr 


scale of MILES 


The Homan Domain 


.• Setia 


The Latin Confederacy- 

The original domain of the city of Rome, 


The Roman Domain and the Latin Confederacy in the Time of 
the Early Republic, about 450 b.c. 

ploughing. Cincinnatus at once accepted the office, gathered an 
army, surrounded and captured the enemy, and sent them all 
beneath the yoke. 1 He then led his army back to Rome in 
triumph, laid down his office, having held it only sixteen days, and 
sought again the retirement of his farm. 

247. The Decemvirs and the Twelve Tables of Laws (tradi¬ 
tional date 451-450 B.C.). Written laws are always a great safe¬ 
guard against oppression. Until what shall constitute a crime and 

1 This was formed of two spears thrust firmly into the ground and crossed a few 
feet from the earth by a third spear. Prisoners of war were forced to pass beneath this 
yoke as a symbol of submission. 
















§ 247] THE TWELVE TABLES OF LAWS 163 

what shall be its penalty are clearly written down and well known 
and understood by all, judges may render unfair decisions or inflict 
unjust punishment, and yet run little risk of being called to an 
account; for no one but themselves knows what either the law or 
the penalty really is. Hence in all struggles of the people against 
the tyranny of a ruling class the demand for written law is one 
of the first measures taken by them for the protection of their 
persons and property. Thus the commons of Athens, early in their 
struggle with the nobles, demanded and obtained a code of written 
laws (sect. 128 ). The same thing now took place at Rome. The 
plebeians demanded that the laws be written down and published. 
The patricians offered a stubborn resistance to their wishes, but 
finally were forced to yield to the popular clamor. 

A commission, so tradition says, was sent to the Greek cities 
of Southern Italy and to Athens to study their laws and customs. 
Upon the return of this embassy a commission of ten magistrates, 
known as decemvirs, was appointed to frame a code of laws. The 
code when finally finished was written on twelve tablets of bronze, 
which were fastened to the Rostra, or orator’s platform in the 
Forum, where they might be seen and read by all. Only a few 
fragments of these celebrated laws have been preserved, but the 
substance of a considerable part of the code is known to us through 
the allusions to it in the works of later writers and jurists. The 
following quotations will give some idea of the character of this 
primitive law-system—the starting-point of a great development 
(see sect. 346 ). 

The provisions regarding the treatment of debtors are note¬ 
worthy. The law provided that, after the lapse of a certain 
number of days of grace, the creditor of a delinquent debtor might 
put him in the stocks or in chains, sell him to any stranger resi¬ 
dent beyond the Tiber, or put him to death. In case there were 
several creditors the law provided as follows: "After the third 
market day his [the debtor’s] body may be divided. Any one 
taking more than his just share shall be held guiltless.” We are 
informed by later Roman writers that this savage provision of the 
law was, as a matter of fact, never carried into effect. 


THE EARLY REPUBLIC 


[§248 


164 

A special provision touching the power of the father over his 
sons provided that "during their whole life he shall have the right 
to imprison, scourge, keep to rustic labor in chains, to sell or to 
slay, even though they may be in the enjoyment of high state 
offices.” The prevalence of popular superstitions is revealed by 
one of the laws which provides for the punishment of any one 
who by enchantments should blight the crops of another. 

These "Laws of the Twelve Tables” formed the basis of all 
new legislation, touching private or personal rights, for many 
centuries, and constituted a part of the education of the Roman 
youth, every schoolboy being required to learn them by heart. 

248. Sack of Rome by the Gauls (390 b.c.). We have noticed 
how in early times Celtic tribes from Gaul crossed the Alps and 
established themselves in Northern Italy. Soon after the opening 
of the fourth century b.c. great hordes of these barbarians made a 
devastating raid through Central Italy. Finally they appeared in 
the neighborhood of Rome. A Roman army met them on the 
banks of the Allia, eleven miles from the capital. But an un¬ 
accountable panic seized the Romans, and they abandoned the 
field in disgraceful flight. It would be impossible to picture the 
consternation and despair that reigned at Rome when the fugitives 
brought to the city intelligence of the terrible disaster. It was 
never forgotten, and the day of the battle of the Allia was ever 
after a black day in the Roman calendar. The sacred vessels of 
the temples were buried; the eternal fires of Vesta were hurriedly 
borne by their virgin keepers to a place of safety in Etruria; and 
a large part of the population fled in dismay across the Tiber. 
No attempt was made to defend any portion of the city save the 
citadel. 

Unable to dislodge the little garrison within the citadel, the 
Gauls finally opened negotiations with the Romans. For one 
thousand pounds of gold the Gauls agreed to retire from the city. 
As the story runs, while the gold was being weighed out in the 
Forum the Romans complained that the weights were false, when 
Brennus, the Gallic leader, threw his sword also into the scales, 
exclaiming, " Vae victis! ” (Woe to the vanquished !) Just at this 



§ 249 ] 


THE LICINIAN LAWS 


165 

moment, so the tale continues, Camillus, a brave patrician general 
who had been appointed dictator, appeared upon the scene with 
a Roman army that had been gathered from the fugitives. As he 
scattered the barbarians with heavy blows he exclaimed, "Rome 
is ransomed with steel, and not with gold.” 

The city, which the Gauls had burned, was quickly rebuilt. 
There were some things, however, which could not be restored. 
These were the ancient records, through whose irreparable loss the 
early history of Rome is involved in great obscurity. 

249. The Licinian Laws (367 b.c.). A great advance of the 
plebeians towards political equality with the patricians, for which 
the plebeians had contended ever since the expulsion of the kings, 
was effected through the passage of the Licinian Laws, so called 
from one of their proposers, the tribune Gaius Licinius. Among 
other provisions these laws contained the following: ( 1 ) that of 
the two consuls one should be a plebeian; ( 2 ) that in place of 
the two patrician keepers of the Sibylline Books (sect. 239 ) there 
should in the future be ten, and that five of these should be 
plebeians. 

The equalization of the two orders was now practically effected. 
The son of a peasant might rise to the highest office in the state.' 
The plebeians later gained with comparative ease admission to the 
remaining offices from which the jealousy of the patricians still 
excluded them. 

The incorporation of the plebeians with the body of Roman 
citizens with full rights was a matter of immense import for the 
future of Rome. It greatly strengthened the state and insured the 
future of the city. It was followed by a century of successful 
wars which made Rome the mistress of Italy and paved the way 
for her advance to the dominion of the civilized world. 

References. Plutarch, Gains Marches Coriolanus. Mommsen, T., vol. i, 
bk. ii, chaps, i-iii. Pelham, H. F., Outlines of Roman History, bk. ii, chap. i. 
How, W. W., and Leigh, H. D., History of Rome, chaps, v-xiii. Shuckburgh, 
E. S., History of Rome, chaps, v, viii, ix. Abbott, F. F., Roman Political Insti¬ 
tutions, pp. 24-57. Ihne, W., Early Ro?ne, chaps, x-xxi. Frank, T., Roman Im¬ 
perialism, chaps, i, ii. GRANRUD, J. E., Roman Constitutional History, pp. 27-92. 


CHAPTER XXVII 


THE CONQUEST AND UNIFICATION OF ITALY 

(367-264 B.C.) 

250. The Roman Municipal System. In the time of the kings, 
when Alba Longa, a leading city of Latium, was taken by the 
Romans, the city was destroyed and its inhabitants transported in 
a body to Rome and incorporated with the Roman people. Later, 
in the times of the early republic, when Veii, a great Etruscan city, 
was captured, the greater part of the inhabitants were killed or 
sold as slaves, the vanquished community being thus broken up 
and, as it were, wiped out of existence. 

Now, Rome admittedly could not attain to greatness by following 
either of these two ways of treating vanquished enemies. Happily, 
very early in her history she hit upon a new governmental device 
which enabled her to incorporate into her growing dominions one 
conquered city after another until she had absorbed the whole 
Mediterranean world. This device was what is known as the mu¬ 
nicipal system, for the reason that the Roman writers gave to a 
city to which this system was applied the name municipium. 

We shall best secure a good understanding of the essential 
feature of this municipal system if we glance at the system as it 
exists among ourselves today; for our so-called municipal system, 
in its underlying principle, is an inheritance from Rome. A mu¬ 
nicipality in our system of government is a city which, acting 
under a charter granted by the state in whose territory it is situ¬ 
ated and of which it forms a part, elects its own magistrates, and 
manages, with more or less supervision on the part of the state, its 
own local affairs. The essential principle involved in the arrange¬ 
ment is local self-government, carried on under the superior author¬ 
ity of the state. The city, without its local political life having been 

stifled, has been made a vital part of a larger political organism. 

166 


§ 251] THE REVOLT OF THE LATIN CITIES 


167 


What we have now said will convey some idea of the important 
place which the municipal system of Rome holds in the develop¬ 
ment of free self-government among men. This was Rome’s great, 
and almost her only, contribution to political constitutional his¬ 
tory, and after her law system her best gift to civilization. 

251 . The Revolt of the Latin Cities (340-338 b.c.). This gov¬ 
ernmental device of the municipium was first applied by Rome, 
in a large way, to the neighboring cities of Latium. We have seen 
how at the opening of the historic period the little city-states of 
this region formed a federation known as the Latin League, of 
which Rome was the leading member (sect. 227 ). At the outset 
this association seems to have been somewhat like the Delian 
League, which, after the repulse of the Persians from Greece, Athens 
formed with her Ionian allies (sect. 145 ). But as time passed 
Rome began to play in the league the same role that Athens played 
in the Delian Confederacy. She used her position in the at first 
equal alliance between her and the Latin towns to make herself 
virtually their master. From allies they became dependents. With 
this position they could not be satisfied. They resolved that Rome 
should give up the sovereignty she was virtually exercising. Ac¬ 
cordingly they sent an embassy to Rome, demanding that the 
association should be made one of perfect equality. To this end 
the ambassadors proposed that in the future one of the consuls 
should be a Latin, and that one half of the Senate should be chosen 
from the Latin nation. Rome was to be the common fatherland, 
and all were to bear the Roman name. 

The demands of the Latin allies were refused, and war followed. 
After about three years’ hard fighting, the rebellion was subdued. 
Rome now dissolved the Latin League and resettled her relations 
to its members. The essence of this famous settlement was that 
most of the cities—a few, three or four, were left their independ¬ 
ence — W ere made municipia of different grades; that is to say, 
they were deprived of sovereignty and their territories were made 
a part of the Roman domain, but they were left their city consti¬ 
tutions and were allowed to live on as separate communities with 
local self-government inside the Roman state. The inhabitants of 


168 CONQUEST AND UNIFICATION OF ITALY [§252 

some of these municipalities were admitted at once to full Roman 
citizenship, while those of others were allowed only a part of the 
rights and privileges of citizens. After a period of probation these 
semi-citizens 1 were all admitted to the full rights of the city. 

Rome was now fairly started on the way to greatness. She had 
laid the foundations of a state unlike anything the world had seen 
before, and one capable of great expansion. "It was, in short, 
to the liberal policy inaugurated by the statesman of 338 that 


the Roman city-state 
owed its capacity to 
unify Italy and make 
it one people .” 2 



252. The Sam- 
nites. The most for¬ 
midable competitors 
of the Romans for 
supremacy in Italy 
were the Samnites, 
a rough and warlike 
mountain people who 


Fig. 64 . The Appian Wav. (From a photograph) held the Apennines 

to the southeast of 

Latium. The successive struggles between these martial races— 
the ancient writers tell of three wars—extended over a period of 
half a century (about 343-290 b.c.), and in their course involved 
almost all the states of Italy. The Romans were finally victors. 
Within a short time after the subjection of the Samnites almost all 
the Greek cities of Southern Italy, except Tarentum, had also come 
under the growing power of the imperial city. 

During the course of these wars with the Samnites and their 
allies Rome had added extensive territories to her domain, and 
had made her hold of these secure by means of colonies and mili¬ 
tary roads; for it was at this time that Rome began the construc¬ 
tion of those remarkable highways that formed one of the most 

1 Known as cives sine stiffragio (citizens without suffrage), since they could not vote 
in the assemblies at Rome. 2 Frank, Roman Imperialism (1914), p. 40. 





§ 253 ] 


THE WAR WITH TARENTUM 


169 


impressive features of her later empire. The first of these roads, 
which ran from Rome to Capua, was begun in the year 312 b.c. 
by the censor Appius Claudius, and was called after him the 
Via Appia. 

253 . The War with Tarentum and Pyrrhus ( 282-272 b.c. ). 
Tarentum, a seaport of Calabria, was one of the most opulent of 
the cities of Magna Grsecia. The Tarentines having mistreated 
some Roman prisoners, the Roman Senate promptly sent an 
embassy to Tarentum to demand amends. In the theater, in the 
presence of a great assembly, one of the ambassadors was grossly 
insulted, his toga being befouled by a clownish fellow amidst the 
approving plaudits of a giddy crowd. The ambassador, raising 
the soiled garment, said sternly, "Laugh now; but you will weep 
when this toga is cleansed with blood.” Rome at once declared 
war. 

The Tarentines turned to Greece for aid. Pyrrhus, king of 
Epirus and a cousin of Alexander the Great, a restless man, who, 
as Plutarch says, "thought life consisted in troubling others 
and in being troubled,” and who had an ambition to build up 
such an empire in the West as his famous kinsman had estab¬ 
lished in the East, responded to their entreaties, and crossed over 
into Italy with an army of Greek mercenaries and twenty war 
elephants. 

Pyrrhus’ first battle with the Romans was won for him by his 
war elephants, the sight of which, being new to the Romans, caused 
them to flee from the field in dismay. But Pyrrhus had lost 
thousands of his bravest troops. As he looked over the battlefield 
he is said to have turned to his companions and remarked, 
"Another such victory and I shall be ruined”; hence the phrase 
"a Pyrrhic victory.” 

After further campaigning, ending with a real defeat, Pyrrhus 
finally returned to Epirus, "leaving behind him nothing save a 
brilliant reputation.” Tarentum soon afterwards surrendered to 
the Romans. This virtually ended the struggle for the mastery of 
Italy. Rome was soon mistress of all the peninsula south of the 
streams of the Arnus (Arno) and the Rubicon. 


170 CONQUEST AND* UNIFICATION OF ITALY [§254 

254. United Italy. This political union of Italy paved the way 
for the social and racial unification of the peninsula. The greatest 
marvel of all history is how Rome, embracing at first merely a 
handful of peasants, could have made so much of the ancient 
world like unto herself in speech, in custom, in manners, and largely 
in blood. That she did so, that she did thus Romanize a large 

part of the peoples of antiquity, is 
one of the most important matters 
in the history of the human race. 
Rome accomplished this great feat 
in large measure by means of her 
system of colonization, which was, 
in some respects, unlike that of any 
other people in ancient or in mod¬ 
ern times. We must make ourselves 
familiar with some of the main fea¬ 
tures of this unique colonial system. 

255. Roman Colonies and Latin 
Colonies. The colonies that Rome 
established in conquered territories 
fall into two classes, known as Roman 
colonies and Latin colonies. Roman 
Fig. 65 . Grotto of Posilipo colonies were made up of emigrants, 
(Near Naples) generally three hundred in number, 

An old Roman tunnel, about half a w ho retained in the new settlement 
mile in length, still in use on the . . . . ... . . 

Appian Way all the rights and privileges, both 

private and public, of Roman citi¬ 
zens, though of course some of these rights, as for instance that 
of voting in the public assemblies at Rome, could be exercised 
by the colonist only through his return to the capital. Such 
colonies were in effect permanent military camps intended to 
guard or to hold in subjection conquered territories. Usually 
it was some conquered city that was occupied by the Roman 
colonists, the old inhabitants either being expelled in whole or 
in part or reduced to a subject condition. The colonists in their 
new homes organized a government which was almost an exact 



§ 255 ] 


ROMAN AND LATIN COLONIES 


171 


imitation of that of Rome, and through their own assemblies 
and magistrates managed all their local affairs. These colonies 
were, in a word, simply miniature Romes—centers from which 
radiated Roman culture into all the regions round about them. 

The Latin colonies were so called, not because they were founded 
by Latin settlers, but because their inhabitants possessed sub¬ 
stantially the same rights as the towns of the old Latin League. 
The Latin colonist possessed some of the most valuable of the 
private rights of Roman citizens, together with the capacity to 
acquire the suffrage by migrating to the capital and taking up 
a permanent residence there, provided he left behind in the town 
whence he came sons to take his place. 

There is an analogy between the status of a settler in an ancient 
Latin colony and of a settler in a territory of our Union. When a 
citizen of any state migrates to a territory he loses his right of 
voting in a federal election, just as a Roman citizen in becoming 
a Latin colonist lost his right of voting in the assemblies at Rome. 
Then again, the resident of a territory has the privilege of changing 
his residence and settling in a state, thereby acquiring the federal 
suffrage, just as the inhabitant of a Latin colony could migrate 
to Rome and thus acquire the right to vote in the assemblies there. 

The Latin colonies numbered about thirty at the time of the 
Second Punic War. They were scattered throughout Italy, and 
formed, in the words of the historian Mommsen, " the real buttress 
of the Roman rule.” They were, even to a greater degree than the 
Roman colonies, active and powerful agents in the dissemination 
of the Roman language, law, and-culture. They were Rome’s chief 
auxiliary in her great task of making all Italy Roman. 

All these colonies were kept in close touch with the capital by 
means of splendid military roads, the construction of which, as we 
have seen, was begun during the Samnite wars (sect. 252 ). 

References. Plutarch, Life of Pyrrhus. Mommsen, T., vol. i, bk. ii, 
chaps, v-ix. Ihne, W., vol. i, bk. iii, chap, xviii, " Condition of the Roman 
People before the Beginning of the Wars with Carthage.” Heitland, W. E., 
vol. i, chaps, xvi-xx. Tighe, A., The Development of the Ro?nan Constitution, 
chap. v. Pelham, H. F., Outlines of Roman Lfistory , bk. ii, chap. ii. Reid, 
J. S., The Municipalities of the Roman Empire, chaps, i-iii, iv (first part). 


CHAPTER XXVIII 

EXPANSION OF ROME BEYOND THE PENINSULA 

* 

I. THE FIRST PUNIC WAR (264-241 b.c.) 

256. Carthage and her Empire. Foremost among the cities 
founded by the Phoenicians was Carthage, upon the northern 
coast of Africa. The favorable location of the colony upon one 
of the best harbors of the African coast gave the city a vast and 
lucrative commerce. By the time Rome had extended her au¬ 
thority over Italy, Carthage held sway, through peaceful coloniza¬ 
tion or by force of arms, over the northern coast of Africa, and 
possessed Sardinia as well as the larger part of Sicily. She also 
collected tribute from the natives of Corsica and of southern Spain. 
With all its shores dotted with her colonies and fortresses and 
swept in every direction by her war galleys, the western Mediter¬ 
ranean had become a " Phoenician lake,” in which, as the Cartha¬ 
ginians boasted, no one dared wash his hands without their 
permission. 

257. Rome and Carthage compared. These two rival cities 
were now about to begin one of the most memorable struggles of 
antiquity. In material power and resources they seemed well 
matched as antagonists; yet Rome had elements of strength, hid¬ 
den in the character of her citizens and embodied in the principles 
of her government, which Carthage did not possess. The Cartha¬ 
ginian government was a despotic oligarchy. The many different 
races of the empire were held in an artificial union by force alone, 
for the Carthaginians had none of the genius of the Romans for 
political organization and state building. The Roman state, on 
the other hand, as we have learned, was the most wonderful politi¬ 
cal organism that the world had ever seen. It was not yet a 
nation, but it was rapidly growing into one. Every free man 


§ 258 ] 


CAUSES OF THE STRUGGLE 


173 


within its limits was either a citizen of Rome or was on the way 
to becoming a citizen. Rome was already the common fatherland 
of more than a quarter of a million of men. 

Again, the Carthaginian territories, though of great extent, were 
widely scattered, while the Roman domains were compact and 
confined to a single and easily defended peninsula. 

As to the naval resources of the two states, there existed at 
the beginning of the struggle no basis for a comparison. The 
Romans were almost destitute of anything that could be called 
a war navy, and were practically without experience in naval 
warfare; while the Carthaginians possessed the largest, the best- 
manned, and the most splendidly equipped fleet that had ever 
patrolled the waters of the Mediterranean. 

258. Causes of the Struggle; the Naval Character of its 
First Phase. The real causes of the long wars between Rome and 
Carthage were commercial jealousy and rivalry for the control of 
the western Mediterranean, particularly of the island of Sicily. 
In its earlier period the struggle was a series of naval combats, the 
Romans having hastily built a great fleet of war galleys patterned 
after the Carthaginian ships. After a single great naval victory 
and many tragic disasters, the Romans finally succeeded in inflict¬ 
ing upon the Carthaginians a decisive naval defeat. Carthage 
now sued for peace. 

259. Terms of the Treaty ; Transfer of Sea Power. A treaty 
was at length arranged, the terms of which required that Carthage 
should give up all claims to the island of Sicily, surrender all 
her prisoners, and pay an indemnity of 3200 talents (about 
$ 4 , 000 , 000 ), one third of which was to be paid down, and the 
balance in ten yearly payments. Thus ended (241 b.c.), after a 
continuance of twenty-four years, the first great struggle between 
Carthage and Rome. 

One important result of the war w^as the crippling of the sea 
power of the Phoenician race, which from time immemorial had 
been a most prominent factor in the history of the Mediterranean 
lands, and the giving practically of the control of the sea into the 
hands of the Romans. 


174 


EXPANSION OF ROME 


[§ 260 


II. THE SECOND PUNIC WAR (218-201 b.c.) 

260. The Carthaginians in Spain. After the disastrous ending 
of the First Punic War, the Carthaginians sought to repair their 
losses by new conquests in Spain. Hamilcar Barca, an able com¬ 
mander, was sent over into that country, and for nine years he 
devoted his commanding genius to organizing the different Iberian 
tribes into a compact state and to developing the rich gold and 
silver mines of the southern part of the peninsula. He fell in 
battle 228 b.c. 

As a rule, genius is not transmitted; but in the Barcine family 
the rule was broken, and the rare genius of Hamilcar reappeared 
in his sons, whom he himself, it is said, was fond of calling the 
"lion’s brood.” As Hannibal, the eldest, was only nineteen at the 
time of his father’s death, and thus* too young to assume com¬ 
mand, Hasdrubal, the son-in-law of Hamilcar, was chosen to 
succeed him. 

Upon the death of Hasdrubal, which occurred 221 b.c., Hanni¬ 
bal, now twenty-six years of age, was by the unanimous voice of 
the army called to be its leader. When a child of nine years he 
had been led by his father to the altar, and there, with his hands 
upon the sacrifice, the little boy had sworn eternal hatred to the 
Roman race. He was driven on to his gigantic undertakings and 
to his hard fate not only by the restless fires of his warlike genius 
but, as he himself declared, by the sacred obligations of a vow 
that could not be broken. 

Hannibal having laid siege to Saguntum,—a native city upon 
the east coast of Spain which the Romans had taken under their 
protection,—the Senate sent messengers to him forbidding him to 
make war upon a city that was an ally of the Roman people; 
but Hannibal, disregarding their remonstrances, continued the 
siege and finally gained possession of the town. 

The Romans now sent commissioners to Carthage to demand 
of the Senate that they give up Hannibal to them, and by so 
doing repudiate the act of their general. The Carthaginians hesi¬ 
tated. Then Quintus Fabius, chief of the embassy, gathering up 


§ 261 ] 


FABIUS "THE DELAYER” 


I 75 


his toga, said: "I carry here peace and war; choose, men of 
Carthage, which ye will have.” " Give us whichever ye will,” was 
the reply. "War, then,” said Fabius, dropping his toga. 

261. Hannibal’s Passage of the Alps. The Carthaginian em¬ 
pire was now all astir with preparations for the mighty struggle. 
Hannibal’s bold plan was to cross the Pyrenees and the Alps and 
descend upon Rome from the north. Early in the spring of 218 b.c. 
he set out from New Carthage with an army numbering about a 
hundred thousand men, and including 
thirty-seven war elephants. Traversing 
northern Spain and crossing the 
Pyrenees and the Rhone, he reached 
the foothills of the Alps. The season 
was already far advanced,—it was 
October,— and snow was falling upon 
the higher portions of the trail, so that 
the passage of the mountains was ac¬ 
complished only after severe toil and 
losses. At length the thinned columns, 
numbering barely twenty-six thousand 

. men, defiled upon the plains of the Po. p IG 55 Hannibal 
This was the pitiable force with which 

Hannibal proposed to attack the Roman state,—a state that at 
this time had on its levy lists over seven hundred thousand foot 
soldiers and seventy thousand horse. 

262. Fabius "the Delayer.” In three successive battles the 
Romans were defeated and their armies virtually destroyed. The 
way to Rome was now open. Believing that Hannibal would 
march directly upon the city, the Senate caused the bridges that 
spanned the Tiber to be destroyed, and appointed Fabius Maximus 
dictator. Fabius "saved the state by wise delay.” Realizing that 
to risk a battle and lose it would be to lose everything, he adopted 
the more prudent policy of following and annoying with a small 
force the Carthaginian army, but refusing all proffers of battle. 
By this policy time was gained for raising a new army and per¬ 
fecting measures for the public defense. 



176 


EXPANSION OF ROME 


[§ 263 


263. The Battle of Cannae (216 B.c.). Early in the summer 
of the year 216 b.c. the new levies, numbering eighty thousand 
men, under the fommand of recently chosen consuls, confronted 
the army of Hannibal, amounting to not more than half that num¬ 
ber, at Cannae, on the banks of the Aufidus, in Apulia. Here the 
Romans suffered a tragic defeat. From forty to seventy thousand 
are said to have been slain ; only a handful escaped. The slaughter 
was so great that, according to Livy, when Mago, a brother of 
Hannibal, carried the news of the victory to Carthage, he, in 
confirmation of the intelligence, poured out on the floor of the 
senate house nearly a peck of gold rings taken from the fingers 
of Roman knights. 

264. Hasdrubal attempts to carry Aid to his Brother ; Battle 
of the Metaurus (207 b.c.). For almost a decade after the battle 
of Cannae the war went on with many vicissitudes. During all 
these years, while Hannibal was waging war in Italy, his brother 
Hasdrubal was carrying on a desperate struggle with the Roman 
armies in Spain. At length he determined to leave the conduct of 
the war in that country to others and go to the relief of his brother, 
who now was sadly in need of aid. fie followed the same route 
that had been taken by Hannibal, and in the year 207 b.c. 
descended from the Alps upon the plains of Northern Italy. Thence 
he advanced southward, while Hannibal moved northward from 
Bruttium to join him. At the river Metaurus, Hasdrubal’s march 
was blocked by a large Roman army. Here his forces were cut to 
pieces, and he himself was slain. His head was severed from his 
body and sent to Hannibal. Upon recognizing the features of his 
brother, Hannibal, it is said, exclaimed sadly, "Carthage, I read 
thy fate.” 

265. The Romans carry the War into Africa; Battle of Zama 
( 202 B.C.). Hannibal now drew back into the rocky peninsula 
of Bruttium. No one dared attack him. It was resolved to carry 
the war into Africa, in the hope that the Carthaginians would 
be forced to call their great commander out of Italy to the de¬ 
fense of Carthage. The consul Publius Cornelius Scipio led the 
army of invasion. He had not been long in Africa before the 


§ 266 ] 


THE CLOSE OF THE WAR 


177 


Carthaginian senate sent for Hannibal. At Zama, not far from 
Carthage, the hostile armies met. Hannibal here suffered his 
first and last defeat. 

266. The Close of the War (201 b.c.). Carthage was now 
completely exhausted and sued for peace. The terms of the treaty 
were much severer than those imposed upon the city at the end 
of the First Punic War. She was required to give up all claims 
to Spain and the islands of the Mediterranean, to surrender her 
war elephants and all her ships of war save ten galleys; to pay 
an indemnity of four thousand talents (about $5,000,000) at once, 
and two hundred talents annually for fifty years; and not, under 
any circumstances, to make war upon an ally of Rome. Five 
hundred of the costly Phoenician war galleys were towed out of the 
harbor of Carthage and burned. 

Such was the end of the Hannibalic War, as it was called by the 
Romans. Scipio was accorded a grand triumph at Rome, and in 
honor of his achievements given the surname Africanus. 

267. Effects of the War on Italy. Italy never entirely recov¬ 
ered from the calamitous effects of this war. Agriculture in some 
districts was almost ruined. The peasantry had been torn from 
the soil and driven within the walled towns. The slave class had 
increased, and the estates of the great landowners had constantly 
grown in size and absorbed the little holdings of the ruined 
peasants. In thus destroying the Italian peasantry, Hannibal’s 
invasion and long occupancy of the peninsula did very much to 
aggravate all those economic evils which even before this time 
were at work undermining the earlier sound industrial life of the 
Romans, and filling Italy with a numerous and dangerous class 
•of homeless and discontented men. 

III. EXPANSION OF ROME INTO THE EAST 

268. Introductory. The terms imposed upon Carthage at the 
end of the Second Punic War left Rome mistress of the western 
Mediterranean. During the eventful half century that elapsed 
between the close of that struggle and the breaking out of the 


178 


EXPANSION OF ROME 


[§ 269 


Third Punic War her authority became supreme also in the east¬ 
ern Mediterranean. In an earlier chapter, in which we narrated the 
fortunes of the most important states into which the great empire 
of Alexander was broken at his death, we followed their several 
histories until, one after another, they fell beneath the arms of 
Rome, and were absorbed into her growing dominions (Chapter 
XIX). We shall therefore in this place speak only of the effects 
upon Rome of these conquests. 

269 . Reaction of the East upon Rome. In entering Greece 
the Romans had entered the homeland of Greek culture, with 
which they had first come in close contact in Magna Graecia. This 
culture was in many respects vastly superior to their own, and for 
this reason it exerted a profound influence upon life and thought 
at Rome. Greek manners and customs, Greek modes of education, 
and Greek literature and philosophy became the fashion at Rome, 
so that Roman society seemed in a fair way of becoming Hellen- 
ized. And to a certain degree this did take place. So many and 
so important were the elements of Greek culture which in the 
process of time were taken up and absorbed by the Romans 
that there ceased to be such a thing in the world as a pure 
Latin civilization. We recognize this intimate blending of the 
cultures of the two great peoples of classical antiquity when we 
speak of the civilization of the later Roman Empire as being 
Graeco-Roman. 

But along with the many helpful elements of culture which the 
Romans received from the East, they received also many germs 
of great social and moral evils. Life in Greece and in the Orient 
had become degenerate and corrupt. Close communication with 
this society, in union with other influences which we shall notice 
later, corrupted life at Rome. "To learn Greek is to learn knav¬ 
ery” became a proverb. The simplicity and frugality of the earlier 
times were replaced by oriental extravagance, luxury, and disso¬ 
luteness. Evidences of this decline in the moral life of the Romans, 
the presage of the downfall of the Republic, will multiply as we 
advance in our narrative. 


§ 270] "CARTHAGE SHOULD BE DESTROYED” 


179 


IV. THE THIRD PUNIC WAR ( 149-146 b.c.) 

270. "Carthage should be destroyed.” In the course of two 
or three decades after the dose of the Second Punic War, Carthage 
regained much of her earlier prosperity. Now it happened that 
the chief of a Roman embassy sent to Carthage to conduct certain 
negotiations was Marcus Cato, the Censor. When he saw the pros¬ 
perity of Carthage,—her immense trade, which crowded her harbor 
with ships, and the country for miles back of the city a beautiful 
landscape of gardens and villas,—he was amazed at the growing 
power and wealth of the city, and returned home convinced that 
the safety of Rome demanded the destruction of her rival. All of 
his addresses after this—no matter on what subject—he is said 
invariably to have closed with the declaration, "Moreover, Car¬ 
thage should be destroyed.” 

A pretext for destroying the city was not long wanting. Charg¬ 
ing the Carthaginians with having broken the conditions of the 
last treaty,— they had broken the mere letter of it,— the Romans 
laid-siege to Carthage. For four years the city held out against 
the Roman army. At length the consul Scipio zEmilianus 1 suc¬ 
ceeded in taking it by storm. The city was literally erased. Every 
trace of building which fire could not destroy was leveled, a plough 
was driven over the site, and a dreadful curse invoked upon any¬ 
one who should dare attempt to rebuild the city. 

Such was the hard fate of Carthage. Polybius, who was an eye¬ 
witness of the destruction of the city, records that Scipio, as he 
gazed upon the smoldering ruins, seemed to read in them the fate 
of Rome, and, bursting into tears, sadly repeated the lines of 
Homer: 

The day shall be when holy Troy shall fall 
And Priam, lord of spears, and Priam’s folk. 2 

The Carthaginian territory in Africa was made into a Roman 
province, with Utica as the leading city; and by means of traders 

1 Grandson by adoption of Scipio Africanus, the conqueror of Hannibal. After his 
conquest of Carthage he was known as Africanus Minor. 2 Iliad, vi. 448. 


i8o 


EXPANSION OF ROME 


[§ 271 


and settlers Roman civilization was spread rapidly throughout the 
regions that lie between the ranges of the Atlas and the sea. 

271. The Significance of Rome’s Triumph over Carthage. 
The triumph of Rome over Carthage may perhaps rightly be given 
as prominent a place in history as the triumph, more than three 
centuries before, of Greece over Persia. In each case Europe was 
saved from the threatened danger of becoming practically a mere 
dependency or extension of Asia. 

The Semitic Carthaginians had not the political aptitude and 
moral energy that characterized the Italians and the other Aryan 
peoples of Europe. Their civilization was lacking in elements of 
growth and expansion. Had this civilization been spread by con¬ 
quest throughout Europe, the germs of political, literary, artistic, 
and religious life among the Aryans of the continent might have 
been smothered, and their history have been rendered as barren 
in political and intellectual interest as the later history of the 
races of the Orient. 

It is these considerations which justify the giving of the battle 
of the Metaurus, which marks the real turning point in thetlong 
struggle between Rome and Carthage, a place along with the battle 
of Marathon in the short list of the really decisive battles of the 
world,—battles which, determining the trend of great currents of 
history, have decided the fate of races, of continents, and of 
civilizations. 

References. Polybius, i, 10-63 ( for an account of the First Punic War); 
xxxix, 3-5 (the fall of Carthage; it should be remembered that Polybius here 
writes as an eye-witness of the scenes that he describes). Plutarch, Fabius 
Maximus and Marcus Cato. Mommsen, T., vol. ii, bk. iii, chaps, i-xiv. 
PELHAM, H. F., Outlines of Roman History , bk. iii, chaps, i-iii. Smith, R. B., 
Carthage and the Carthaginians and Rome and Carthage. Dodge, T. A., 
Hannibal. Morris, W. O., Hannibal. Church, A. J., Story of Carthage 
(interesting for younger classes). Creasy, E. S., Decisive Battles of the World , 
chap, iv, " The Battle of the Metaurus.” 


CHAPTER XXIX 


THE LAST CENTURY OF THE REPUBLIC 

(133-31 B.C.) 

272. Introductory. We have now traced in broad outlines the 
development of the institutions of republican Rome, and have told 
briefly the story of that wonderful career of conquest which made 
the little Palatine city first the mistress of Latium, then of Italy, 
and finally of the greater part of the Mediterranean world. In 
the present chapter we shall follow the declining fortunes of the 
Republic through the last century of its existence. During this 
time many agencies were at work undermining the institutions of 
the Republic and paving the way for the Empire. What these 
agencies were will best be made apparent by a simple narration of 
the events that crowd this memorable period of Roman history. 

273. The First Servile War in Sicily (134-132 b.c.). With 
the opening of this period we find a terrible struggle going on in 
Sicily between masters and slaves,—what is known as the First 
Servile War. The condition of affairs in that island was the 
outgrowth of the Roman system of slavery. 

The captives that the Romans took in war they usually sold 
into servitude. The great number furnished by their numerous 
conquests had caused slaves to become a drug in the slave markets 
of the Mediterranean world. They were so cheap that masters 
found it more profitable to wear their slaves out by a few years of 
unmercifully hard labor and then to buy others than to preserve 
their lives for a longer period by more humane treatment. In case 
of sickness they were often left to die without attention, as the 
expense of nursing exceeded the cost of new purchases. Some 
estates were worked by as many as twenty thousand slaves. 

The wretched condition of the slaves in Sicily, where the slave 

system exhibited some of its worst features, at last drove them to 

181 


182 THE LAST CENTURY OF THE REPUBLIC [§274 


revolt. The insurrection spread throughout the island until two 
hundred thousand slaves were in arms—if axes, reaping hooks, 
staves, and roasting spits may be called arms. They defeated 
four Roman armies sent against them, and for three years defied 
the power of Rome. Finally, however, in the year 132 b.c., the 
revolt was crushed, and peace was restored to the distracted 
island. 

274. The Public Lands. In Italy itself affairs were in a hardly 
less wretched condition than in Sicily. At the bottom of a large 
part of the social and economic troubles here was the public-land 
system. By law or custom those portions of the public lands 
which remained unsold or unallotted as homesteads were open to 
anyone to till or to pasture. In return for such use of the public 
land the user paid the state usually a fifth or a tenth of the yearly 
produce. Persons who availed themselves of this privilege were 
called possessors or occupiers; we should call them "squatters” 
or "tenants at will.” 

Now it had happened that, in various ways, the greater part 
of these public lands had fallen into the hands of the wealthy. 
They alone had the capital necessary to stock with cattle and slaves 
the new lands, and hence they were the sole occupiers of them. 
The small farmers everywhere, too, were being ruined by the unfair 
competition of slave labor, and their little holdings were passing 
by purchase, and often by fraud or barefaced robbery, into the 
hands of the great proprietors. The greater part of the lands of 
Italy, about the beginning of the first century b.c., are said to have 
been held by not more than two thousand persons. Thus, largely 
through the workings of the public-land system, the Roman people 
had become divided into two great classes,—the rich and the poor, 
the possessors and the non-possessors. 

275. The Reforms of the Gracchi. The most noted champions 
of the cause of the poorer classes against the rich and powerful 
were Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus. These reformers are reckoned 
among the most popular orators that Rome ever produced. They 
eloquently voiced the wrongs of the people. Said Tiberius, "You 
are called 'lords of the earth’ without possessing a single clod to 


§ 276] 


THE SOCIAL WAR 


183 

call your own.” The people made him tribune (134-133 b.c.); 
and in that position he secured the passage of a law for the 
redistribution of the public lands, which gave some relief. 

As the end of his term of office drew near, Tiberius stood again 
for the tribunate. The aristocrats combined to defeat him. It 
came to riot and street fighting. The partisans of Tiberius were 
overpowered, and he and three hundred of his followers were killed 
in the Forum and their bodies thrown into the Tiber. This was the 
first time that the Roman Forum had witnessed such a scene of 
violence and crime. 

Gaius Gracchus now came forward to assume the position made 
vacant by the death of his brother Tiberius. The people elected 
him tribune. As tribune he won the affection of the poor of the 
city by carrying a law which provided that every Roman citizen, 
on personal application, should be given corn from the public 
granaries at half or less than half the market price. Gaius could 
not have foreseen all the evils to which this law was to lead. It 
led eventually to the free distribution of corn to all citizens who 
made application for it. Very soon a large proportion of the popu¬ 
lation of Rome was living in idleness and feeding at the public 
crib (sect. 352). 

Other measures in the interest of the people proposed by Gaius 
were bitterly opposed by the aristocrats, and the two orders at 
last came into collision. Gaius sought death by a friendly sword, 
and three thousand .of his adherents were massacred. 

The common people ever regarded the Gracchi as martyrs, and 
their memory was preserved in later times by statues in the pub¬ 
lic square. To Cornelia, their mother, a monument was erected, 
bearing the simple inscription, "The Mother of the Gracchi.” 

276. The Social War (91-89 B.C.). At the opening of the last 
century b.c. all the free inhabitants of Italy were embraced in 
three classes,— Roman citizens, Latins, and Italian allies. The 
Roman citizens included the inhabitants of the capital, of certain 
towns called municipia , and of the Roman colonies (sect. 255), 
besides the dwellers on isolated farms and the inhabitants of 
villages scattered everywhere throughout Italy. The Latins 


184 THE LAST CENTURY OF THE REPUBLIC [§277 


comprised the inhabitants of the Latin colonies. The Italian allies 
were those conquered peoples that Rome had excluded wholly from 
the rights of the city. 

The Social War was a struggle that arose from the demands of 
the Italian allies for the privileges of Roman citizenship. Their 
demands being stubbornly resisted by both the aristocratic and 
the popular party at Rome, they took up arms, resolved upon the 
establishment of a rival state. A town called Corfinium, among 
the Apennines, was chosen as the capital of the new republic, and 
its name changed to Italica. Thus in a single day a large part of 
Italy south of the Rubicon was lost to Rome. 

Aristocrats and democrats now hushed their quarrels and fought 
bravely side by side for the endangered life of the Republic. The 
war lasted three years, and was finally brought to an end rather 
by prudent concessions on the part of Rome than by fighting. In 
the year 90 b.c., alarmed by signs of disaffection in certain of the 
communities that up to this time had remained faithful, Rome 
granted the franchise of the city to all Italian communities that 
had not declared war against her or had already laid down their 
arms. The following year the full rights of the city were offered 
to all Italians who should within two months appear before a 
Roman magistrate and express a wish for the franchise. This 
tardy concession to the just demands of the Italians virtually 
ended the war. 1 

277 . Comments on the Political Results of the Social War. 
Thus as an outcome of the war practically all the freemen of Italy 
south of the Po were made equal in civil and political rights. This 
was a matter of great significance. "The enrollment of the Italians 
among her own citizens deserves to be regarded,’’ declares the 
historian Merivale, "as the greatest stroke of policy in the whole 
history of the Republic.’’ This wholesale enfranchisement of Latin 
and Italian allies more than doubled the number of Roman citizens. 

This equalization of the different classes of the Italian peninsula 
was simply a later phase of that movement in early Rome which 

1 After the close of the war the rights that up to this time had been enjoyed by the 
Latin towns were conferred upon all the cities between the Po and the Alps. 


§ 277 ] POLITICAL RESULTS OF THE SOCIAL WAR 185 

resulted in the equalization of the two orders of the patricians and 
the plebeians. But the purely political results of the earlier and 
those of the later revolution were very different. At the earlier 
time those who demanded and received the franchise were persons 
living either in Rome or in its immediate vicinity, and consequently 
able to exercise the acquired right to vote and to hold office. 

But now it was very different. These new-made citizens were 
living in towns and villages or on farms scattered all over Italy, 
and of course very few of them could ever go to Rome, either to 
participate in the elections there, to vote on proposed legislation, 
or to become candidates for the Roman magistracies. Hence the 
rights they had acquired were, after all, politically barren. But 
no one was to blame for this state of things. Rome had simply 
outgrown her city constitution and her system of primary assem¬ 
blies (sect. 233). She needed for her widening empire a representa¬ 
tive system like curs ; but representation was a political device far 
away from the thoughts of the men of those times. 

As a result of the impossibility of the Roman citizens outside of 
Rome taking part, as a general thing, in the meetings of the popu¬ 
lar assemblies at the capital, the offices of the state fell into the 
hands of those actually living in Rome or settled in. its immediate 
neighborhood. Since the free, or practically free, distribution of 
corn and the public shows were drawing to the capital from all 
quarters crowds of the poor, the idle, and the vicious, these assem¬ 
blies were rapidly becoming simply mobs controlled by noisy 
demagogues and unscrupulous military leaders aiming at the 
supreme power in the state. 

This situation brought about a serious division in the body of 
Roman citizens. Those of the capital came to regard themselves 
as the real rulers of the empire, as they actually were, and looked 
with disdain upon those living in the other cities and the remoter 
districts of the peninsula. They alone reaped the fruits of the 
conquered world. At the same time the mass of outside passive 
citizens, as we may call them, came to look with jealousy upon 
this body of pampered aristocrats, rich speculators, and ragged, 
dissolute clients and hangers-on at Rome. They became quite 


186 THE LAST CENTURY OF THE REPUBLIC [§278 


reconciled to the thought of power passing out of the hands of such 
a crowd and into the hands of a single man. The feelings of men 
everywhere were being prepared for the revolution that was to 
overthrow the Republic and bring in the Empire. 

278. Marius and Sulla contend for Command in a War 
against Mithradates. While the Social War was still in progress 
in Italy a formidable enemy of Rome appeared in the East. 
Mithradates VI, surnamed the Great, king of Pontus, taking ad¬ 
vantage of the distracted condition of the Republic, had encroached 

upon the Roman possessions in Asia 
Minor, had caused a general massacre of 
the Italian traders and residents in. that 
country, and had persuaded many of the 
cities in Greece to renounce the authority 
of Rome. The Roman Senate now be¬ 
stirred itself. An army was raised for 
the recovery of the Orient. Straightway 
a contest arose between Gaius Marius, an 
able commander who had risen from the 
lowest ranks of the people, and a noble¬ 
man named Sulla, for the command of the forces. The Senate con¬ 
ferred this upon Sulla, who at that time was consul. Marius was 
furious. By violent means he succeeded in carrying a measure in 
an assembly of the people whereby the command was taken away 
from Sulla and given to him. Sulla now saw that the sword 
must settle the dispute. He marched at the head of his legions 
upon Rome, entered the gates, and " for the first time in the an¬ 
nals of the city a Roman army encamped within the walls.” The 
party of Marius was defeated, and he and ten of his companions 
were proscribed. Sulla soon embarked with the legions to meet 
Mithradates in the East (88 b.c.). 1 

279. Marius massacres the Aristocrats (87 b.c.). Returning 
from Africa, whither he had fled, Marius joined the consul Cinna 
in an attempt to crush by force the senatorial party. Rome was 
cut off from her food supplies and starved into submission. Marius 

1 This was what is known as the First Mithradatic War (88-84 b.c.). 



Fig. 67. Mithradates 
the Great. (Coin) 



§ 280] 


THE PROSCRIPTIONS OF SULLA 


187 


now took a terrible revenge upon his enemies. The consul Gnaeus 
Octavius, who represented the aristocrats, was assassinated, and 
his head set up in front of the Rostra. Never before had such a 
thing been seen at Rome,—a consul’s head exposed to the public 
gaze. For five days and nights a merciless slaughter was kept up. 
The life of every man in the capital was in the hands of the 
revengeful Marius. As a fitting sequel to all this violence, Marius 
and Cinna were, in an entirely illegal way, declared consuls. 
Marius was now consul for the seventh time. He enjoyed his 
seventh consulship only thirteen days, being carried away by 
death in the seventy-first year of his age (86 b.c.). 

280. The Proscriptions of Sulla (82 b.c.). With the Mithra- 
datic war ended, Sulla wrote to the Senate, saying that he was 
now coming to take vengeance upon the Marian party,—his own 
and the Republic’s foes. Landing with his army in Italy, Sulla, 
after much hard fighting, entered Rome with all the powers of 
a dictator. The leaders of the Marian party were proscribed, 
rewards were offered for their heads, and their property was con¬ 
fiscated. Sulla was implored to make out a list of those he 
designed to put to death, that those he intended to spare might be 
relieved of the terrible suspense in which all were now held. He 
made out a list of eighty, which was attached to the Rostra. The 
people murmured at the length of the roll. In a few days it was 
extended to over three hundred, and then grew rapidly until it 
included the names of thousands of the best citizens of Italy. 
Hundreds were murdered simply because some favorites of Sulla 
coveted their estates. A wealthy noble, coming into the Forum 
and reading his own name in the list of the proscribed, exclaimed, 
"Alas! my villa has proved my ruin.” Julius Caesar, at this time 
a mere boy of eighteen, was proscribed on account of his relation¬ 
ship to Marius, but, upon the intercession of friends, Sulla spared 
him; as he did so, however, he said warningly, "There is in that 
boy many a Marius.” 

The number of victims of these proscriptions has been handed 
down as forty-seven hundred. Almost all of these must have been 
men of wealth or of special distinction on account of their activity 


188 THE LAST CENTURY OF THE REPUBLIC [§281 


in public affairs. The property of the proscribed was confiscated 
and sold at public auction, or virtually given away by Sulla to 
his favorites. The bases of some of the most colossal fortunes 
that we hear of a little after this were laid during these times of 
proscription and robbery. 

This reign of terror bequeathed to later times a terrible "legacy 
of hatred and fear. 5 ’ Its awful scenes haunted the Romans for 
generations, and at every crisis in the affairs of the commonwealth 
the public mind was thrown into a state of painful apprehension 
lest there should be a repetition of these frightful days of Sulla. 

By a decree of the Senate Sulla was now made dictator during 
his own good pleasure. After having exercised the unlimited pow T er 
of his office for three years, Sulla, to the surprise of everybody, 
suddenly resigned the dictatorship and went into retirement. He 
died the year following his abdication (78 b.c.). One important 
result of the rule of Sulla as an absolute dictator-was the accustom¬ 
ing of the people to the idea of the rule of a single man. His short 
dictatorship was the prelude to the reign of the permanent 
imperator. 

281. Spartacus; War of the Gladiators (73-71 b.c.). About a 
decade after the proscriptions of Sulla, Italy was the scene of 
fresh troubles. Gladiatorial combats had become at this time the 
favorite sport of the amphitheater. At Capua was a sort of train¬ 
ing school from which skilled fighters were hired out for public or 
private entertainments. In this seminary was a Thracian slave, 
known by the name of Spartacus, who incited his companions to 
revolt. The insurgents fled to the crater of Vesuvius and made that 
their stronghold. There they were joined by gladiators from other 
schools, and by slaves and discontented persons from every quarter. 
Their number at length increased to a hundred and fifty thousand 
men. For three years they defied the power of Rome. But at 
length Spartacus himself was killed and the insurrection crushed. 

282 . Growth of Piracy in the Mediterranean ; War with the 
Pirates (78-66 b.c.). Another shameful commentary on the in¬ 
capacity of the government of the aristocrats was the growth of 
piracy in the Mediterranean waters during their rule. It is true 


283] 


POMPEY IN THE EAST 


189 

that this was an evil which had been growing for a long time. 
The Romans, through their conquest of the countries fringing the 
Mediterranean, had destroyed not only the governments that had 
maintained order on the land, but at the same time had destroyed 
the fleets, as in the case of Carthage, which, since the days when 
the rising Greek cities suppressed piracy in the iEgean Sea, had 
policed the Mediterranean and kept its ship routes clear of corsairs. 

The Mediterranean, thus left practically without patrol, was 
swarming with pirates, for the Roman conquests in Africa, Spain, 
and especially in Greece and Asia Minor, had caused thousands 
of adventurous spirits in those maritime countries to take to their 
ships and seek a livelihood by preying upon the commerce of the 
seas. The pirates even ravaged the shores of Italy itself. They 
carried off merchants and travelers from the Appian Way and held 
them for ransom. At last they began to intercept the grain ships 
of Sicily and Africa and thereby threatened Rome with starvation. 
Corn rose to famine prices. 

The Romans now bestirred themselves. In the year 67 b.c. 
Gnaeus Pompey, a rising young general of the aristocrats, was 
invested with dictatorial power for three years over the Mediter¬ 
ranean and all its coasts for fifty miles inland. He quickly swept 
the pirates from the sea, captured their strongholds in Cilicia, and 
settled the twenty thousand prisoners that fell into his hands in 
colonies in Asia Minor and Greece. His vigorous conduct of this 
campaign brought him great honor and reputation. 

283. Pompey in the East; the Death of Mithradates (63 b.c.). 
Pompey had not yet ended the war with the pirates before he was 
given, by a vote of the people, charge of the war against Mith¬ 
radates, who was now again in arms against Rome. In a great 
battle in Lesser Armenia Pompey almost annihilated the army of 
Mithradates. The king fled from the field, and soon afterwards, 
to avoid falling into the hands of the Romans, took his own life. 
His death removed one of the most formidable enemies that Rome 
had ever encountered. Hamilcar, Hannibal, and Mithradates were 
the three great names that the Romans always pronounced with 
respect and dread. 


igo THE LAST CENTURY OF THE REPUBLIC [§ 284 


284. The Conspiracy of Catiline (64-62 b.c.). While the legions 
were absent from Italy with Pompey in the East a most daring 
conspiracy against the government was formed at Rome. Catiline, 
a ruined spendthrift, had gathered a large company of profligate 
young nobles, weighed down with debts and desperate like himself, 
and had deliberately planned to murder the consuls and the chief 
men of the state and to plunder and burn the capital. The proscrip¬ 
tions of Sulla were to be renewed and all debts were to be canceled. 

Fortunately, all the plans of the conspirators were revealed to 
the consul Cicero, the great orator. The Senate immediately 
clothed the consuls with dictatorial power with the usual formula 
that they " should take care that the republic received no harm.” 
Then in the Senate chamber, with Catiline himself present, Cicero 
exposed the whole conspiracy in a famous philippic, known as 
The First Oration against Catiline. The senators shrank from the 
conspirator and left the seats about him empty. After a feeble 
effort to reply to Cicero, overwhelmed by a sense of his guilt, and 
the cries of "traitor” and "parricide” from the senators, Catiline 
fled from the chamber and hurried out of the city to the camp of 
his followers in Etruria. In a desperate battle fought near Pistoria 
he was slain with many of his followers. His head was borne as 
a trophy to Rome. 

285. Caesar, Crassus, and Pompey: the So-called "First 
Triumvirate” (60 b.c.). Although the conspiracy of Catiline had 
failed, still it was very easy to foresee that the days of liberty at 
Rome were over. From this time forward the government was 
practically in the hands of ambitious leaders or of corrupt com¬ 
binations and "rings.” Events gather about a few great names, 
and the annals of the Republic become biographical rather than 
historical. 

There were now in the state three men —Caesar, Crassus, and 
Pompey—who were destined to shape affairs. Gaius Julius Casar 
was born in the year ioo b.c. Although descended from an old 
patrician family, still he had identified himself with the democratic 
party. In every way he courted the favor of the multitude. He 
lavished enormous sums upon public games and tables. His 


§ 286] 


CESAR’S CONQUEST OF GAUL 


191 


popularity was unbounded. A successful campaign in Spain had 
already made known to himself, as well as to others, his genius 
as a commander. 

Marcus Licinius Crassus belonged to the senatorial or aristo¬ 
cratic party. He owed his influence to his enormous wealth, being 
one of the richest men in the Roman world. His property was 
estimated at 7100 talents (about $8,875,000). 

With Gnaeus Pompey and his achievements we are already 
familiar. His influence throughout the Roman world was great; 
for in settling the countries he subdued he had filled the offices 
with his friends and adherents. This patronage had secured for 
him incalculable authority in the provinces. 

What is commonly known as the "First Triumvirate” rested on 
the genius of Caesar, the wealth of Crassus, and the reputation of 
Pompey. It was a private arrangement entered into by these 
three men for the purpose of securing to themselves the control 
of public affairs. Caesar was the manager of the " ring.” Through 
the aid of his colleagues he secured the consulship. 

286 . Caesar’s Conquest of Gaul (58-51 b.c.). Directly after 
his consulship Caesar was commissioned to govern the provinces 
of Cisalpine and Transalpine Gaul, together with Ulyricum. 
Already doubtless he was revolving in his mind plans for seizing 
supreme power. Beyond the Alps the Gallic and German tribes 
were in restless movement. He saw there a grand field for military 
exploits, which should gain for him such prestige as in other fields 
had been won and was now enjoyed by Pompey. With this 
achieved, and with a veteran army devoted to his interests, he 
might hope easily to attain that position at the head of affairs 
toward which his ambition was urging him. 

In the spring of 58 b.c. alarming intelligence from beyond the 
Alps caused Caesar to hasten from Rome into Transalpine Gaul. 
Now began a series of eight brilliant campaigns directed against 
the various tribes of Gaul, Germany, and Britain. In his admirable 
Commentaries Caesar himself has left us a faithful and graphic 
account of all the memorable marches, battles, and sieges that 
filled the years between 58 and 51 b.c. 


192 THE LAST CENTURY OF THE REPUBLIC [§287 

The year 55 b.c. marked two notable achievements. Early in 
the spring of this year Caesar constructed a bridge across the Rhine 
and led his legions against the Germans in their native woods and 
swamps. In the autumn of the same year he crossed the channel 
that separates the mainland from Britain, and after maintaining 
a foothold upon that island for two weeks withdrew his legions into 
Gaul for the winter. The following season he made another 
invasion of Britain, but, after some encounters with the fierce 
barbarians, recrossed to the mainland without having established 
any permanent garrisons in the island. Almost one hundred years 
passed away before the natives of Britain were again molested by 
the Romans. 

Great enthusiasm was aroused at Rome by Caesar’s victories 
over the Gauls. "Let the Alps sink,” exclaimed Cicero; "the 
gods raised them to shelter Italy from the barbarians; they are 
now no longer needed.” 

287 . Results of the Gallic Wars. One good result of the Gallic 
wars of Caesar was the Romanizing of Gaul. The country was 
opened to Roman traders and settlers, who carried with them 
the language, customs, and arts of Italy. This Romanization of 
Gaul meant the adding of another to the number of Latin nations 
that were to arise from the break-up of the Roman Empire. There 
can be little doubt that if Caesar had not conquered Gaul it would 
have been overrun by the Germans, and would ultimately have 
become simply an extension of Germany. There would then have 
been no great Latin nation north of the Alps and the Pyrenees. 
It is difficult to imagine what European history would be like if 
the French nation, with its semi-Italian temperament, instincts, 
and traditions, had never come into existence. 

Another result of Caesar’s campaigns in Gaul was the checking 
of the migratory movements of the German tribes, which gave 
Graeco-Roman civilization time to become thoroughly rooted not 
only in Gaul but also in Spain and other lands. 

288 . Rivalry between Caesar and Pompey ; Caesar crosses the 
Rubicon (49 b.c.). While Caesar was in Gaul Crassus was leading 
an army against the Parthians in the East, hoping to rival there 


§ 289] CESAR MASTER OF THE ROMAN WORLD 


193 


the brilliant conquests of Caesar. But his army was almost 
annihilated by the enemy, and he himself was slain (54B.C.). 

The world now belonged to Caesar and Pompey. A struggle 
between them was inevitable. While Caesar was carrying on his 
campaigns in Gaul, Pompey was at Rome watching jealously the 
growing reputation of his rival. He strove by a princely liberality 
to win the affections of the common people. He gave magnificent 
games and set public tables, and when the interest of the people 
in the sports of the Circus flagged he entertained them with 
gladiatorial combats. 

In a similar manner Caesar strengthened himself with the people 
for the struggle which he plainly foresaw. He sought in every 
way to ingratiate himself with the Gauls; he increased the pay 
of his soldiers, conferred the privileges of Roman citizenship upon 
the inhabitants of different cities, and sent to Rome enormous sums 
of gold to be expended in the erection of theaters and other public 
structures, and in the celebration of games and shows that should 
rival in magnificence those given by Pompey. 

The Senate, favoring Pompey, made him sole consul for one 
year, which was about the same thing as making him dictator, and 
issued a decree that Caesar should resign his office and disband 
his Gallic legions by a stated day. The crisis had now come. 
Caesar ordered his legions to hasten from Gaul into Italy. Without 
waiting for their arrival, at the head of a small body of veterans 
that he had with him at Ravenna, he crossed the Rubicon, a little 
stream that marked the boundary of his province. This was a 
declaration of war. As he plunged into the river, he exclaimed, 
"The die is cast! ” 

289. Caesar becomes Sole Master of the Roman World.* As 
Caesar marched southward, one city after another threw open its 
gates to him; legion after legion went over to his standard. 
Pompey, with a few legions, fled to Greece. Within sixty days 
Caesar had made himself master of all Italy. His moderation won 
all classes to his side. Many had looked to see the terrible scenes 
of the days of Marius and Sulla reenacted. Caesar, however, soon 
gave assurance that life and property should be held sacred. 


194 THE LAST CENTURY OF THE REPUBLIC [§290 

With order restored in Italy, and with Sicily, Sardinia, and Spain 
brought under his authority, Caesar was free to turn his forces 
against Pompey in the East. The armies of the rivals met upon 
the plains of Pharsalus in Thessaly. Pompey s forces were cut to 
pieces. He himself fled from the field and escaped to Egypt. 

Just as he was landing he was assassinated. 

Other campaigns and vic¬ 
tories followed both in the 
East and in the West, and 
then Caesar was sole lord of 
the Roman world. He re¬ 
frained from taking the title 
of king, but he assumed the 
purple robe, the insignia of 
royalty, and caused his effigy 
to be stamped, after the man¬ 
ner of sovereigns, on the 
public coins. His statue was 
significantly given a place 
along with those of the seven 
kings of early Rome. He 
was invested with all the 
Fig. 68. Julius Cesar. (From a bust offices and dignities of the 

in the Museum at Naples) state. The Senate made him 

perpetual dictator (44 b.c.), 
and conferred upon him the powers of censor, consul, and tribune, 
with the titles of Pontifex Maximus and Imperator. Thus, though 
not a king in name, Caesar’s actual position at the head of the state 
was that of an absolute ruler. 

290. Caesar as a Statesman. Caesar was great not only as a 
general but also as a statesman. He had great plans which em¬ 
braced the whole world that Rome had conquered. A chief aim 
of his was to establish between the different classes of the Empire 
equality of rights, to place Italy and the provinces on the same 
footing, to blend the various races and peoples into a real nation,— 
in a word, to carry to completion that great work of making all 





§291] 


THE DEATH OF GESAR 


195 


the world Roman which had been begun in the earliest times. To 
this end he established numerous colonies in the provinces and 
settled in them the poorer citizens of the capital. With a liberality 
that astonished and offended many, he admitted to the Senate sons 
of freedmen, and particularly representative men from among the 
Gauls, and conferred upon individual provincials, and upon entire 
classes and communities in the provinces, the partial or full rights 
of the city. His action here marks an epoch in the history of 
Rome. The immunities and privileges of the city had never 
hitherto been conferred, save in exceptional cases, upon any 
peoples other than those of the Italian race. Caesar threw the gates 
of the city wide open to the non-Italian peoples of the provinces. 
Thus was foreshadowed the day when all freemen throughout the 
whole Empire should be Roman in name and privilege (see Table, 
p. 205). 

As Pontifex Maximus, Caesar reformed the calendar so as to 
bring the festivals once more in their proper seasons, and provided 
against further confusion by making the year consist of three 
hundred and sixty-five days, with an added day for every fourth 
or leap year. This is what is called the Julian Calendar. 1 

Besides these achievements, Caesar projected many other under¬ 
takings which the abrupt termination of his life prevented his 
carrying into execution. 

291. The Death of Caesar ( 44 b.c.). Caesar had his bitter per¬ 
sonal enemies, who never ceased to plot his downfall. There 
were, too, sincere lovers of the old Republic to whom he was the 
destroyer of republican liberties. The impression began to prevail 
that he was aiming to make himself king. A crown was several 
times offered him in public by the consul Mark Antony; but, 
seeing the manifest displeasure of the people, he each time 
pushed it aside. Yet there is little doubt that secretly he desired it. 
It was reported that he proposed to rebuild the walls of Troy, the 
fabled cradle of the Roman race, and make that ancient capital 

1 This calendar, which was based on the old Egyptian calendar (sect. 30), was in 
general use in Europe until the year 1582, when it was reformed by Pope Gregory 
XIII and became what is known as the Gregorian Calendar. This in time came to be 
used in almost all Christian countries. A few still retain the Julian Calendar. 


196 THE LAST CENTURY OF THE REPUBLIC [§292 

the seat of the new Roman Empire. Others professed to believe 
that the arts and charms of the Egyptian Cleopatra, who had 
borne him a son at Rome, would entice him to make Alexandria 
the center of the proposed kingdom. So many, out of love for 
Rome and the old Republic, were led to enter into a conspiracy 
against the life of Caesar with those who sought to rid themselves 
of the dictator for other and personal reasons. 

The Ides (the 15th day) of March, 44 b.c., upon which day the 
Senate convened, witnessed the assassination. Seventy or eighty 
conspirators, headed by Gaius Cassius and Marcus Brutus, were 
concerned in the plot. The soothsayers must have had soma 
knowledge of the plans of the conspirators, for they had warned 
Caesar to "beware of the Ides of March.” No sooner had he 
entered the hall where the Senate assembled that day, and taken 
his seat, than the conspirators crowded about him as if to present 
a petition. Upon a signal from one of their number their daggers 
were drawn. For a moment Caesar defended himself; but seeing 
Brutus, upon whom he had lavished gifts and favors, among the 
conspirators, he is said to have exclaimed reproachfully, "Et tu , 
Brute /” (Thou, too, Brutus!) and then to have drawn his mantle 
over his face. 

The Romans had killed many of their best men and cut short 
their work; but never had they killed such a man as Caesar. He 
was the greatest man their race had yet produced or was destined 
ever to produce. 

Caesar's work was left all incomplete. What makes it histori¬ 
cally important is that in his reforms Caesar drew the broad lines 
which his successors followed, and indicated the principles on 
which the government of the future must be based. 

292. The Second Triumvirate (43 b.c.) ; the Death of Cicero. 
Antony, the friend and secretary of Caesar, had gained possession 
of his will and papers, and now, under color of carrying out the 
testament of the dictator according to a decree of the Senate, 
entered upon a course of high-handed usurpation. Very soon he 
was exercising all the powers of a real dictator. "The tyrant is 
dead,” said Cicero, "but the tyranny still lives.” 


§ 292] 


THE SECOND TRIUMVIRATE 


197 


To what lengths Antony would have gone in his career of 
usurpation it is difficult to say, had he not been opposed at this 
point by Gaius Octavius, the young grand-nephew of Julius Caesar, 
and the one whom he had named in his will as his heir and 
adopted as his son. Upon the 
Octavius, civil war immediately 
broke out between him on the 
one hand and Antony and Lepi- 
dus (one of Caesar’s old lieuten¬ 
ants) on the other. After several 
indecisive battles between the 
forces of the rival competitors, 

Octavius proposed to Antony and 
Lepidus a reconciliation. The 
outcome of a conference was a 
league known as the Second 
Triumvirate (43 b.c.). 

The plans of the triumvirs 
were infamous. They first divided 
the world among themselves: 

Octavius was to have the gov¬ 
ernment of the West; Antony, 
that of the East; while to Lepi¬ 
dus fell the control of Africa. 

A general proscription, such as 
had marked the coming to power 
of Sulla, was then resolved upon. It was agreed that each 
should give up to the assassin such friends of his as had incurred 
the ill-will of either of the other triumvirs. Under this arrange¬ 
ment Octavius gave up his friend Cicero,—who had incurred the 
hatred of Antony by opposing his schemes,—and allowed his 
name to be put at the head of the list of the proscribed. 

The friends of the orator urged him to flee the country. His 
attendants were hurrying him, half unwilling, toward the coast, 
when his pursuers came up and dispatched him in the litter in 
which he was being carried. His head was taken to Rome and 


Senate’s declaring in favor of 



Fig. 69. Cicero. (Madrid) 


198 THE LAST CENTURY OF THE REPUBLIC [§293 

set up in the Forum. The right hand of the victim—the hand that 
had penned the eloquent orations—was nailed to the Rostra . 1 

Cicero was but one victim among many hundreds. All the 
dreadful scenes of the days of Sulla were reenacted. Three hun¬ 
dred senators and two thousand knights were murdered. The 
estates of the wealthy were confiscated and conferred by the 
triumvirs upon their friends and favorites. 

293 . Last Struggle of the Republic at Philippi (42 b.c.). 
The friends of the old Republic and the enemies of the triumvirs 
were meanwhile rallying in the East. Brutus and Cassius, who 
had fled from Rome after the assassination of Caesar, were the 
animating spirits. Octavius and Antony, as soon as they had dis¬ 
posed of their enemies in Italy, crossed the Adriatic into Greece 
to disperse the forces of the republicans there. At Philippi, in 
Thrace, the hostile armies met. The new levies of the liberators 
were cut to pieces, and both Brutus and Cassius, believing the 
cause of the Republic lost, committed suicide. It was, indeed, the 
last effort of the Republic. The history of the events that lie 
between the action at Philippi and the establishment of the Empire 
is simply a record of the struggles among the triumvirs for the 
possession of the prize of supreme power. Lepidus was at length 
expelled from the triumvirate, and then again the Roman world, 
as in the times of Caesar and Pompey, was in the hands of two 
masters,—Antony in the East and Octavius in the West. 

294. The Battle of Actium (31 B.c.). Affairs could not long 
continue in their present course. Antony had put away his faithful 
wife Octavia for the beautiful Cleopatra . 2 It was whispered at 
Rome, and not without truth, that he proposed to make Alexandria 
the capital of the Roman world, and announce Caesarion, son of 
Julius Caesar and Cleopatra, as the heir of the Empire. All Rome 

1 The speakers’ stage in the Forum. It was so called because decorated with the 
beaks (rostra) of captured war galleys. 

After the battle of Philippi Antony went into Asia for the purpose of settling the 
affairs of the piovinces and vassal states there. At Tarsus, in Cilicia, he met Cleopatra, 
the famous queen of Egypt. Antony was completely fascinated, as had been the great 
Caesar before him, by the witchery of the « Serpent of the Nile.” Enslaved by her 
enchantments and charmed by her brilliant wit, in the pleasure of her company he forgot 
all else — ambition and honor and country. 


§ 294] 


THE BATTLE OF ACTIUM 


199 


was stirred. It was evident that a struggle was at hand in which 
the question for decision would be whether the West should rule 
the East, or the East rule the West. All eyes were instinctively 
turned to Octavius as the defender of Italy and the supporter of 
the sovereignty of the Eternal City. 

Both parties made the most gigantic preparations for the inevi¬ 
table conflict. Octavius met the combined fleets of Antony and 
Cleopatra just off the promontory of Actium, on the western 
coast of Greece. While the issue of the battle was yet undecided, 
Cleopatra turned her galley in flight. Antony, as soon as he per¬ 
ceived the withdrawal of Cleopatra, forgot all else and followed in 
her track with a swift galley. Overtaking the fleeing queen, the 
infatuated man was received aboard her vessel and became her 
partner in the disgraceful flight. The abandoned fleet and army 
surrendered to Octavius. 1 The conqueror was now sole master of 
the civilized world. From this decisive battle (31 b.c.) are usually 
dated the end of the Republic and the beginning of the Empire. 

References. Plutarch, Tiberius Gracchus and Julius Ccesar. Cicero, 
Letters to Atticus (Loeb Classical Library), bk. vii, letters 1-26. Ferrero, G., 
The Greatness and the Decline of Rotne, vols. i-iii; vol. iv (chaps, i-vi). Meri- 
vale, C., The Fall of the Roman Repjiblic. Pelham, H. F., Outlines of Roman 
History , pp. 201-258, 333-397- Gilman, A., Story of Rome , chaps, xii, xiii. 
Mommsen, T., vol. iv (read chap, xi, "The Old Republic and the New 
Monarchy”)- Oman, C., Seven Roman Statesmen of the Republic. Strachan- 
Davidson, J. L., Cicero and the Fall of the Roman Republic. Fowler, W. W., 
Julius Ccesar. 

1 Octavius pursued Antony to Egypt, where the latter, deserted by his army and in¬ 
formed by a messenger from the false queen that she was dead, committed suicide. 
Cleopatra then sought to enslave Octavius with her charms; but failing in this, and be¬ 
coming convinced that he proposed to take her to Rome to grace his triumph, she took 
her own life, being in the thirty-eighth year of her age. With the death of Cleopatra 
the noted dynasty of the Egyptian Ptolemies came to an end. Egypt was henceforth a 
province of the Roman state. 


CHAPTER XXX 

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE EMPIRE AND THE 
PRINCIPATE OF AUGUSTUS CiESAR 
(31 B.C.-A.D. 14) 

295 . The Character of the Imperial Government. The hun¬ 
dred years of strife which ended with the battle of Actium left the 
Roman Republic, exhausted and helpless, in the hands of one 
wise enough and strong enough to remold its crumbling fragments 
in such a manner that the state, which seemed ready to fall to 
pieces, might prolong its existence for another five hundred years. 
It was a great work thus to create anew, as it were, out of anarchy 
and chaos, a political fabric that should exhibit such elements of 
perpetuity and strength. "The establishment of the Roman Em¬ 
pire,” says Merivale, "was, after all, the greatest political work 
that any human being ever wrought. The achievements of Alex¬ 
ander, of Caesar, of Charlemagne, of Napoleon are not to be 
compared with it for a moment.” 

Soon after his return from the East, Octavius laid down the ex¬ 
traordinary powers which he, as sole master of the legions, had 
been exercising. Then the Senate, acting doubtless in accordance 
with a previous understanding or the known wishes of Octavius, 
reinvested him with virtually the same powers but with republican 
titles; for, mindful of the fate of Julius Caesar, Octavius saw to 
it that the really absolute power which he received under the new 
arrangements was veiled under the forms of the old Republic. He 
did not take the title of king. He knew how hateful to the people 
that name had been since the expulsion of the Tarquins. Nor did 
he take the title of dictator, a name that since the time of Sulla 
had been almost as intolerable to the people as that of king. But 
he adopted or accepted the title of I m per at or ,—whence the name 
Emperor— a title which, although it carried with it the absolute 


200 


§ 295] CHARACTER OF THE GOVERNMENT 


2 or 



authority of the commander of the legions, still had clinging 
to it no odious memories. He also received from the Senate 
the honorary 
surname of 
A ugustus, a 
title that hith¬ 
erto had been 


sacred to the gods, 
and hence was free 
from all sinister asso¬ 
ciations. A monument of 
this act was erected in the cal¬ 
endar. It was decreed by the 
Senate that the sixth month of 
the Roman year should be 
called Augustus (whence our 
August) in commemoration of 
the Imperator, an act in imita¬ 
tion of that by which the pre¬ 
ceding month had been given 
the name Julius (whence our 
July) in honor of Julius Caesar. 
Common usage also bestowed 
upon Octavius the name of 
Princeps , which was only a 
designation of courtesy and dig¬ 
nity and which simply pointed 
out him who bore it as the 
" first citizen ” of a free republic. 

And as Octavius was careful* 
not to wound the sensibilities 
of the lovers of the old Repub¬ 
lic by assuming any title that 
in any way suggested regal au¬ 
thority and prerogative, so wa 
opposition by abolishing any of i 


Fig. 70. Augustus. (Vatican 
Museum) 

This statue of Augustus is regarded as one 
of the best of Roman portraits 

he careful not to arouse their 
; republican offices or assemblies. 









































































202 


AUGUSTUS CESAR 


[§ 296 


He allowed all the old magistracies and the popular assemblies to 
exist as heretofore; but he himself absorbed and exercised the 
most important part of their powers and functions . 1 

The Senate still existed, but it was shorn of all real independence 
by the predominating influence of its first member, the Princeps. 
Octavius endeavored to raise the body to a higher standard. He 
reduced the number of senators—which had been raised by 
Antony to one thousand—to six hundred, and struck from 
the rolls the names of unworthy members and of obstinate 
republicans. 

We may summarize all these changes by saying that the mon¬ 
archy abolished five hundred years before this was now slowly 
rising again amidst the old forms of the Republic. This is what 
was actually taking place; for the chief powers and prerogatives 
of the ancient king, which during the republican period had been 
gradually broken up and lodged in the hands of a great number 
of magistrates, colleges, and assemblies, were now being once more 
gathered up in the hands of a single man. This drift toward the 
unrestrained rule of a single person is the essence of the constitu¬ 
tional history of Rome for the first three centuries of the Empire; 
by the end of that period the concentration of all power in the 
hands of the Princeps was complete, and the veiled monarchy of 
Octavius emerges in the unveiled oriental monarchy of Diocletian 
(sect. 311 ). 

296. The Government of the Provinces. The revolution that 
brought in the Empire effected a great improvement in the condi¬ 
tion of the provincials. The government of all those provinces that 
were in an unsettled state and that needed the presence of a large 
military force Augustus 2 withdrew from the Senate and took the 
management of their affairs in his own hands. These were known 
as the provinces of Ccesar. Instead of these countries being ruled 
by practically irresponsible proconsuls and propretors, they were 

1 ^ consuls were generally nominated by Augustus, and in order that a large 
number of his friends and favorites might be amused with the dignity, the term of 
office was reduced to a shorter period. At a later time the length of the consulate was 
shortened to two or three months. 

2 Fr «m this on we shall refer to Octavius by this his honorary surname. 


§ 297 ] 


LITERATURE UNDER AUGUSTUS 


203 


henceforth ruled by legates of the Emperor, who were removable 
at his will and answerable to him for the faithful and honest 
discharge of the duties of their offices. 

The more tranquil provinces were still left under the control of 
the Senate and were known as public provinces. These also prof¬ 
ited by the change, since the Emperor extended his care to them, 
and, as the judge of last appeal, righted wrongs and punished 
flagrant offenders against right and justice. 

297. The Defeat of Varus by the Germans under Arminius 
(a.d. 9). The reign of Augustus was marked by one of the most 
terrible disasters that ever befell the Roman legions. The general 
Quintilius Varus, leading an army of about twenty thousand men 
against the Germans beyond the Rhine, in the almost pathless 
depths of the Teutoburg Wood was surprised by the barbarians 
under their brave chieftain Arminius , 1 and his army destroyed. 

This victory of Arminius over the Romans was an event of great 
significance in the history of European civilization. The Germans 
were on the point of being completely subjugated and put in the 
way of being Romanized, as the Celts of Gaul had already been. 
Had this occurred, had Germany become a Latin nation, the 
whole course of European history would have been changed. 
Further, among these barbarians were our Anglo-Saxon ancestors. 
Had Rome succeeded in exterminating or enslaving them, Britain, 
as Creasy says, might never have received the name of England, 
and the great English nation might never have come into existence. 

298. Literature and the Arts under Augustus. The reign of 
Augustus lasted forty-four years, from 31 b.c. to a.d. 14 . Although 
the government of Augustus, as we have learned, was disturbed by 
some troubles upon the frontiers, still, never before, perhaps, had 
the civilized world enjoyed so long a period of general rest from 
the turmoil of war. Three times during this auspicious reign the 
gates of the Temple of Janus at Rome, which were open in time 
of war and closed in time of peace, were shut. Only twice before 
during the existence of the city had they been closed, so con¬ 
stantly had the Roman people been engaged in war. 

l His name may have been Hermann or Armin ; the Romans wrote it Arminius. 


2 04 


AUGUSTUS C2ESAR 


[§ 299 


This long repose from the strife that had filled all the preceding 
centuries was favorable to the upspringing of literature and art. 
Under the patronage of the Emperor and that of his favorite 
minister Maecenas, poets and writers flourished and made this the 
Golden Age of Latin literature. The great names in the literature 
of the period are those of Vergil, Horace, Ovid, and Livy. 

Augustus was also a munificent patron of architecture and art. 
He adorned the capital with many splendid structures, including 
temples, theaters, baths, and aqueducts. He said proudly, "I 
found Rome a city of brick; I left it a city of marble.” The 
population of the city at this time was probably about one million. 

299. The Death and Deification of Augustus. In the year 
14 of the Christian era Augustus died, having reached the seventy- 
sixth year of his age. By decree of the Senate, divine worship was 
accorded to him aiid temples were erected in his honor. 

The cult of Augustus had developed, particularly in the Orient, 
while he was yet living. At first flush this worship of Caesar seems 
to us strange and impious. But it will not seem so if we put 
ourselves at the point of view of the ancients. In the Orient the 
king had very generally been looked upon as in a sense divine. 
Thus in Egypt the Pharaoh was believed to be of the very race 
of the gods. It was natural, then, that the subjects of Rome in 
the Eastern provinces should look upon the head of the Empire as 
one lifted above ordinary mortals and possessed of divine qual¬ 
ities. This way of thinking caused the provincials of the Orient 
to become sincere and zealous worshipers in the temples and before 
the altars of the "divine Caesar.” 

From the East the custom of worshiping the Emperor spread to 
the West; only at Rome itself it remained usual to wait till after 
his death. This deification of the Caesars had far-reaching conse¬ 
quences, as we shall see; since at this very time there was 
springing up in a remote corner of the Empire a new religion 
with which the imperial cult must necessarily come into violent 
conflict. For it was in the midst of the happy reign of Augustus, 
when peace prevailed throughout the civilized world, that Christ 
was born in Bethlehem of Judea. 


§ 2991- 


TABLE OF ROMAN CITIZENS 


205 


TABLE SHOWING THE NUMBER OF ROMAN CITIZENS AT 
DIFFERENT PERIODS OF THE REPUBLIC AND UNDER 


THE EARLY EMPIRE 1 


Under the later kings (Mommsen's estimate). . . . 

338 B.c. 

293 B -C. 

251 B. C. 

220 B.C. 

204 B.C. . . 

164 B.C. 

”5 B ‘ C . 

70 B.C. 

27 B.C. 

S B. C. 

A.D. 13. 

A. D„ 47 (under Claudius). 


Citizens of 
Military Age 

20,000 

165,000 

262,322 

279*797 
270,213 
214,000 2 3 
327,022 
394.336 
900,000 
4,063,000 s 

4.233.000 

4,937,000 

6,944,000 


References. Ferrero, G., The Greatness and Decline of Rome , vols. iv 
(chaps, vii-xi), v. Inge, V. R., Society in Rome under the Ccesars , chap, i, 
" Religion ” (deals with the decay of the Roman religion and the establishment 
at the capital of oriental cults). Capes, W. W., The Early Empire , chap, i, 
” Augustus.” PELHAM, H. F., Outlines of Roman Histoiy, bk. v, chap. iii. 
Bury, J. B., The Roman Empire (Student’s Series), pp. 1-163. F* r th, J. B., 
Augustus Ccesar. Creasy, E. S., Decisive Battles of the World , chap, v, " Victory 
of Arminius over the Roman Legions under Varus, a.d. 9.” Friedlander, 
L., Roman Life and Manners , vol. i, pp. 70-97. Davis, W. S., The Influence 
of Wealth in Imperial Rome, pp. 80-105. 

1 These figures illustrate what is perhaps the most important matter in Roman 
history, namely, the gradual admission of aliens to the full rights of the city until every 
freeman in the civilized world had become a citizen of Rome. 

2 The falling off from the number of the preceding census of 220 b.c. was a result 
of the Hannibalic War. 

3 These figures and those of the enumerations for 8 b.c. and a.d. 13 are from the 
Monumentum Ancyraman. The increased number given by the census of 70 b. c. over 
that of 115 b.c. registers the result of the admission to the city of the Italians at the 
end of the Social War (sect. 276). The tremendous leap upwards of the figures between 
70 and 27 B.c. is probably to be explained not wholly by the admission during this 
period of aliens to the franchise but also, possibly, by the failure of the censors of the 
republican period to include in their enumerations the Roman citizens living in places 
remote from the capital. 














CHAPTER XXXI 


FROM TIBERIUS TO THE ACCESSION OF DIOCLETIAN 

(A.D. 14-284) 

300. Principate of Tiberius (a.d. 14 - 37 ). Tiberius, the adopted 
stepson of Augustus, became his successor. During the first years 
of his reign he used his practically unrestrained authority with 
moderation, and even to the last his government of the provinces 
was just and beneficent. 

But unfortunately Tiberius was of morose, suspicious, and 
jealous nature, and the opposition which he experienced in the 
capital caused him, in his contest with his political and personal 
enemies, soon to institute there a most high-handed tyranny. 
Appointing as his chief minister and as commander of the pretorian 
guard 1 one Sejanus, a person of the lowest and most corrupt life, 
he retired to Capreae, an islet in the Bay of Naples, and left to 
this man the management of affairs at the capital. For a time 
Sejanus ruled at Rome very much according to his own will. No 
man’s life was safe. He even grew so bold as to plan the assassi¬ 
nation of the Emperor himself. His designs, however, became 
known to Tiberius, and the infamous and disloyal minister was 
arrested and put to death. After the execution of his minister 
Tiberius ruled more despotically than before. Many sought refuge 
from his tyranny in suicide. 

It was in the midst of the reign of Tiberius that, in a remote 
province of the Roman Empire, the Saviour was crucified. Ani¬ 
mated by an unparalleled missionary spirit, his followers traversed 
the length and breadth of the Empire, preaching everywhere 
the new teachings. Mens loss of faith in the gods of the old 

1 This was a corps of select soldiers which had been created by Augustus, and 
which was designed as a bodyguard to the Emperor. It numbered about 10,000 men, 
and was ghen a peimanent camp near one of the city gates. It soon became a 
formidable power in the state and made and unmade emperors at will. 

206 


§301] 


RULE OF NERO 


207 


mythologies, the softening and liberalizing influence of Greek cul¬ 
ture, the unification of the whole civilized world under a single 
government, the widespread suffering and the inexpressible weari¬ 
ness of the oppressed and servile classes,—all these things had 
prepared the soil Tor the seed of the new doctrines. In less than 
three centuries the pagan Empire had become Christian not only 
in name but also very largely in fact. 

301. Rule of Nero (a.d. 54-68). Nero, the third Emperor after 
Tiberius, was fortunate in having for his preceptor the great 
philosopher and moralist Seneca (sect. 344); but never was teacher 
more unfortunate in his pupil. For five years Nero, under the 
influence of Seneca and Burrhus, the latter the commander of the 
pretorians, ruled with moderation and equity; then he gradually 
broke away from the guidance of his tutor Seneca, and entered 
upon a career filled with crimes of almost incredible enormity. 

It was in the tenth year of his reign (a.d. 64) that the so-called 
"Great Fire” laid more than half of Rome in ashes. It was 
rumored that Nero had ordered the conflagration to be lighted in 
order to clear the ground so that he could rebuild the city on a 
more magnificent plan, and that from the roof of his palace he 
had enjoyed the spectacle and amused himself by singing a poem 
of his own composition entitled the Sack of Troy. To turn atten¬ 
tion from himself, Nero accused the Christians of having conspired 
to burn the city. The persecution that followed was one of the 
most cruel recorded in the history of the Church. Many victims 
were covered with pitch and burned at night to serve as torches 
in the imperial gardens. Tradition preserves the names of the 
apostles Peter and Paul as victims of this persecution. 

The Emperor was extravagant and consequently always in need 
of money, which he secured through murders and confiscations. 
Among his victims was his old preceptor Seneca, who was im¬ 
mensely rich. On the charge of treason, Nero condemned him to 
death and confiscated his estate. 

At last the armies began to rebel, and the Senate declared Nero 
a public enemy and condemned him to death by scourging. To 
avoid this, aided by a servant, he took his own life. 


208 


FROM TIBERIUS TO DIOCLETIAN 


[§ 302 


302 . Vespasian (a.d. 69-79). A short troublous period followed 
the reign of Nero and then the imperial purple was assumed by 
Flavius Vespasian, the old and beloved commander of the legions 
in Palestine. One of the most memorable events of Vespasian’s 
reign was the capture and destruction of Jerusalem. After one of 



Fig. 71. Triumphal Procession from the Arch of Titus. (From 

a photograph) 

Showing the seven-branched candlestick and other trophies from the temple at Jerusalem 

the most harassing sieges recorded in history, the city was taken 
by Titus, son of Vespasian. A vast multitude of Jews who had 
crowded into the city—it was the season of the Passover— 
perished. In imitation of Nebuchadnezzar, Titus robbed the 
temple of its sacred utensils and bore them away as trophies. 
Upon the triumphal arch at Rome that bears his name may be 
seen at the present day the sculptured representation of the 
seven-branched golden candlestick, which was one of the memo¬ 
rials of the war. 

After a most prosperous reign of ten years Vespasian died 
a.d. 79, the first Emperor after Augustus who had not met with 
a violent death. 














§ 303] 


REIGN OF TITUS 


209 

303. Titus ( a . d . 79-81 ). In a short reign of two years Titus won 
the title of "the Friend and the Delight of Mankind.” He was 
unwearied in acts of benevolence and in bestowal of favors. His 
reign was signalized by two great disasters. The first was a con¬ 
flagration at Rome, which was almost as calamitous as the Great 
Fire in the reign of Nero. The second was the destruction, by an 
eruption of Vesuvius, of the Campanian cities of Pompeii and 
Herculaneum. The cities were buried beneath showers of cinders, 
ashes, and streams of volcanic mud. Pliny the Elder,-the great 
naturalist, venturing too near the mountain to investigate the 
phenomenon, lost his life. 1 

304. The Five Good Emperors. The emperors Nerva, Trajan, 
Hadrian, and the two Antonines, whose united reigns covered the 
later years of the first and the greater part of the second century 
of the Christian era, were elected by the Senate, which during this 
period assumed something of its former influence in the affairs of 
the Empire. The wise and beneficent administration of the gov¬ 
ernment by these rulers won for them the distinction of being 
called " the five good emperors.” This period probably marks the 
high tide of civilization in ancient times. 

Nerva, who was an aged senator and an ex-consul, ruled pater¬ 
nally. He died after a short reign of sixteen months, and the 
scepter passed into the stronger hands of the able commander 
Trajan, whom Nerva had previously made his associate in the 
government. 

305. Trajan ( a . d . 98-117). Trajan was a native of Spain and a 
soldier by profession and talent. He was the first provincial to sit 
in the seat of the Caesars. From this time forward provincials 
were to play a part of ever-increasing importance in the affairs of 
the Empire. 

It was the policy of Augustus—a policy adopted by most of 
his successors—to make the Danube in Europe and the Euphra¬ 
tes in Asia the limits of the Roman Empire in those respective 

1 During the past century extensive excavations have uncovered a large part of 
Pompeii and revealed to us the streets, homes, theaters, baths, shops, temples, and 
various monuments of the ancient city — all of which presents a vivid picture of Roman 
life during the imperial period eighteen hundred years ago. 


210 


FROM TIBERIUS TO DIOCLETIAN 


[§306 


quarters. But Trajan determined to push the frontiers of his 
dominions beyond both these rivers. In the early part of his 
reign he was busied in wars against the Dacians, a people living 
north of the Lower Danube. These troublesome enemies were 
subjugated, and Dacia was made into a province. The modern 
name Rumania is a monument of this Roman conquest and 
colonization beyond the Danube. The Rumanians today speak a 
language that in its main elements is largely of Latin origin. 1 

In the latter years of his reign Trajan led his legions to the 
East, crossed the Euphrates, reduced Armenia, and wrested from 
the Parthians most of the lands which once formed the heart of 
the Assyrian monarchy. Out of the territories he had conquered 
Trajan made three new provinces, which bore the ancient names 
of Armenia, Mesopotamia, and Assyria. 

To Trajan belongs the distinction of having extended the 
boundaries of the Empire to the most distant points to which 
Roman ambition and prowess were ever able to push them. 

306 . Hadrian (a.d. i 17 — 13 s) . Hadrian, a kinsman of Trajan, 
succeeded him in the imperial office. He prudently abandoned the 
territory acquired by Trajan beyond the Euphrates, and made 
that stream once more the eastern boundary of the Empire. 

More than fifteen years of his reign were spent by Hadrian in 
making tours of inspection through all the different provinces of 
the Empire. He visited Britain, and secured the Roman posses¬ 
sions there against the Piets and Scots by erecting a continuous 
rampart, known as " Hadrian's Wall ” across the island from the 
I yne to the Solway Firth. This wall, in places well preserved, 
can still be traced over the low hills of the English moorlands 
almost from sea to sea. There exists nowhere in the lands that 
once formed the provinces of the ‘Empire of Rome any more 
impressive memorial of her world-wide dominion than these 
ramparts, along which for three hundred years and more her 
sentinels kept watch and ward for civilization against the barba¬ 
rian marauders of Caledonia. 

1 The Romanic-speaking peoples of Rumania and the neighboring regions number 
about ten millions. 




polonia, 


't’ippina, 


dobona 


noricu 


'14quileia\ 


rgeraKK 

\Ch ers ° ! 


venna 




Capuak-?'^ 

Jlaice^fo, 

Naples** 


^R^IXlX 


;vJl , P ivrUA v 


SICIX.Y 


gmm 


L esara\®y t£l ' 


(yS P BMS 


CRETE 


Cyrene 


THE ROMAN EMPIRE 

AT ITS GREATEST EXTENT 
(Under Trajan, A. D. 9S-117) 

a *a n rmn aaa anA bOO 600 'TOO 


Seale of Miles, 


oao 















































































































§ 307] 


THE ANTONINES 


2 11 


307 . The Antonines (a.d. 138 -iso). Aurelius Antoninus, sur- 
named Pius, the adopted son of Hadrian, and his successor, gave 
the Roman Empire an administration singularly pure and parental. 
Throughout his long reign of twenty-three years the Empire was 
in a state of profound peace. The attention of the historian is 
attracted by no striking events, which fact, as many have not 
failed to observe, illustrates admirably the oft-repeated epigram, 
Happy is that people whose annals are brief.” 

Antoninus, early in his reign, had united with himself in the 
government his adopted son Marcus Aurelius, and upon the death 
of the former (a.d. i6i) the latter succeeded quietly to his place 
and work. The studious habits of Aurelius won for him the title 
of Philosopher. He belonged to the school of the Stoics, and was 
a most thoughtful writer. His Meditations make the nearest 
approach to the spirit of Christianity of all the writings of 
pagan antiquity. 

Having in mind the character of Marcus Aurelius, it perhaps 
will seem strange to some that one of the severest persecutions of 
the Christians should have taken place, as it did, in his reign. In 
explanation of this it should be noted that the persecution of the 
Christians under the pagan emperors sprang from political rather 
than religious motives, and that is why we find the names of the 
best emperors, as well as those of the worst, in the list of perse¬ 
cutors. It was believed that the welfare of the state was bound up 
with the careful performance of the rites of the national worship ; 
and hence, while the Roman rulers were usually very tolerant, 
allowing all forms of worship among their subjects, still they re¬ 
quired that men of every faith should at least recognize the 
Roman gods and burn incense before their statues, and particu¬ 
larly before the statue of the emperor (sect. 299). This the 
Christians steadily refused to do. The neglect of the temple serv¬ 
ices it was believed angered the gods and endangered the safety of 
the state, bringing.upon it drought, pestilence, and every disaster. 
This was a main reason of their persecution by the pagan emperors. 

Toward the end of the reign of Marcus Aurelius imperative 
calls for help came from the north. The barbarians were pushing 


2 12 


FROM TIBERIUS TO DIOCLETIAN 


[§ 3 OS 


in the Roman outposts and pouring over the frontiers. Aurelius 
placed himself at the head of his legions and hurried beyond the 
Alps. He checked the inroads of the barbarians, but could not 
subdue them. At last his weak body gave way beneath the hard¬ 
ships of his numerous campaigns, and he died in his camp at 
Vindobona (now Vienna) in the nineteenth year of his reign 
(a.d. 180). 

Never was Monarchy so justified of her ‘children as in the lives 
and works of Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. As Merivale, 
in dwelling upon their virtues, very justly remarks, "The blame¬ 
less career of these illustrious princes has furnished the best excuse 
for Caesarism in all after ages.” 

308. The State of the Provinces. The close of the auspicious 
era of the Antonines invites us to cast a glance over the Empire, 
in order that we may note the condition of the population at large. 
As we have already observed, the great revolution which brought 
in the Empire was a revolution which conduced to the interests 
of the provincials. Even under the worst emperors the adminis¬ 
tration of affairs in the provinces was as a rule humane and just. 
It is probably true that, embracing in a single view all the 
countries included in the Roman Empire, the second century of 
the Christian era marks the happiest period in their history. 

The cities of the Eastern countries, as well as hundreds of simi¬ 
lar communities in Spain, in Gaul, in Britain, and in other lands 
of the West, were enjoying, under the admirable municipal sys¬ 
tem developed by the Romans, a measure of local self-government 
probably equal to that enjoyed today by the municipalities 
of the most advanced of the countries of modern Europe. This 
wise system had preserved or developed the sentiment of local 
patriotism and civic pride. The cities vied with one another in the 
erection of theaters, amphitheaters, baths, temples, and triumphal 
arches, and in the construction of aqueducts, bridges, and other 
works of a utilitarian nature. In these undertakings they were 
aided not only by liberal contributions made by the emperors from 
the imperial treasury but by the generous gifts and bequests of 
individual citizens. Private munificence of this character was as 




§ 309] 


THE SALE OF THE EMPIRE 


213 


remarkable a feature of this age as is the liberality of individuals 
at the present day in the endowment of educational and charitable 
institutions. 

Scores of majestic ruins scattered throughout the lands once 
forming the provinces of the ancient Empire of Rome bear im¬ 
pressive testimony not only as to the populousness, culture, and 



Fig. 72. Roman Aqueduct and Bridge, dating from the Early 
Empire, near Nimes, France. (Present condition) 

This is one of the finest and most impressive of the existing monuments of the old 
Roman builders. The lower row of arches carries a modern roadway 


enterprise of the urban communities of the Roman dominions 
but also as to the generally wise and beneficent character of the 
earlier imperial rule. 

309. A Century of Anarchy; the Sale of the Empire (a.d. 193). 
For about a hundred years after the beneficent rule of the 
Antonines the Empire was the prey of disorder and sedition. The 
character of the period is revealed by the fact that of the twenty- 
five emperors who mounted the throne during this time all except 
four came to death by violence. To internal disorders was added 
the terror of barbarian invasions. On every side savage hordes were 
breaking into the Empire to rob, to murder, and to burn. 










214 


FROM TIBERIUS TO DIOCLETIAN 


[§ 309 


One of the most significant events of these troublous times was 
the sale of the Empire by the pretorians. 1 These soldiers, having 
killed the reigning Emperor, gave out notice that they would sell 
the Empire to the highest bidder. It was accordingly set up for 
sale at their camp and struck off to Didius Julianus, a wealthy 
senator, who promised twenty-five thousand sesterces (about 
Siooo) to each of the twelve thousand soldiers at this time 
composing the guard. 

As soon as the news of the disgraceful transaction reached the 
legions on the frontiers, they rose in indignant revolt. Each army 
proclaimed its favorite commander Emperor. The leader of the 
Danubian troops was Septimius Severus, a man of great energy 
and force of character. He knew that there were other competitors 
for the throne, and that the prize would be his who first seized it. 
Instantly he set his veterans in motion and was soon at Rome. 
The pretorians were no match for the trained legionaries of the 
frontiers, and did not even attempt to defend their Emperor, who 
was taken prisoner and put to death after a reign of sixty-five 
days. As a punishment for the insult they had offered to the 
Roman state the unworthy pretorians were disbanded and banished 
from the capital, and a new bodyguard of legionaries was organized 
to take their place. 

References. Gibbon, E., chap, ii, "Of the Union and Internal Prosperity 
of the Roman Empire in the Age of the Antonines.’’ Mommsen, T., The 
Provinces of the Roman Empire from Cccsar to Diocletia?i. Pelham, H. F., 
Outlines of Roman History , pp. 470-548. Dill, S., Roman Society from Nero 
to A/arcus Aurelius (a notable book). Tucker, T. G., Life in the Roman 
World of Nero and St. Paul. Watson, P. B., Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, 
chap, vii, ' I he Attitude of Aurelius towards Christianity.” Capes, W. W., 
The Age of the Antonines. Mau, A., Pompeii: its Life and Art. Lanciani, 
R., Pagan and Christian Rome, chap, vii (on the Catacombs). 


1 S^e above, p. 206, n. 1. 


CHAPTER XXXII 

DIOCLETIAN AND CONSTANTINE THE GREAT 

I. THE REIGN OF DIOCLETIAN (a.d. 284-305) 

310. General Statement. The accession of Diocletian marks 
an important era in the history of the Roman Empire. The two 
matters of chief importance connected with his reign are the 
changes he effected in the government and his persecution of the 
Christians. Diocletian’s governmental reforms, though radical, 
were salutary, and infused such fresh vitality into the frame of 
the dying state as to give it a new lease of life for another term 
of nearly two hundred years. 

311. The Empire becomes an Undisguised Oriental Monarchy. 

Up to the time we have now reached, the really monarchical char¬ 
acter of the government had been more or less carefully concealed 
under the forms and names of the old Republic. Realizing that 
republican government among the Romans had passed away for¬ 
ever, and that its forms were now absolutely meaningless; Dio¬ 
cletian cast aside all the masks with which Augustus had concealed 
his practically unlimited power and which fear or policy had led 
his successors, with greater or less consistency, to retain, and let 
the government stand forth naked in the true character of what it 
had now virtually become—an absolute Asiatic monarchy. 

The change was marked by Diocletian’s assumption of the titles 
of Asiatic royalty and his adoption of the court ceremonials and 
etiquette of the East. He clothed himself in magnificent robes 
of silk and gold. He took the title of lord , and all who approached 
him were required to prostrate themselves to the ground, a form of 
oriental and servile adoration which the free races of the West 
had hitherto, with manly disdain, refused to render to their magis¬ 
trates and rulers. 


2I 5 


2l6 


DIOCLETIAN AND CONSTANTINE 


[§312 


312. Changes in the Administrative System. The century of 
anarchy which preceded the accession of Diocletian, and the death 
by assassination during this period of so many of the wearers of 
the imperial purple, had made manifest the need of a system which 
would discourage assassination and provide a regular mode of suc¬ 
cession to the throne. Diocletian devised a system the aim of 
which was to compass both these ends. First, he chose as a col¬ 
league a companion ruler, Maximian, who, like himself, bore the 
title of Augustus. Then each of the co-emperors associated with 
himself an assistant, who took the title of Caesar and was con¬ 
sidered the son and heir of the emperor. There were thus two 
Augusti and two Caesars. Milan, in Italy, became the capital and 
residence of Maximian; while Nicomedia, in Asia Minor, became 
the seat of the court of Diocletian. The Augusti took charge of 
the countries near their respective capitals, while- the Caesars,— 
Galerius and Constantius,—younger and more active, were assigned 
the government of the more distant and turbulent provinces. The 
vigorous administration of the government in every quarter of the 
Empire was thus secured. 

Diocletian also subdivided many of the provinces. His purpose 
in doing this was to diminish the powder of the provincial governors 
and thus make it impossible for them to raise successfully the 
standard of revolt. 

A most serious drawback to this system was the heavy expense 
involved in the maintenance of four courts with their endless 
retinues of officers and dependents, and the great number of 
officials needed to man and work the complicated system. It was 
complained that the number of those who received the revenues of 
the state was greater than that of those who contributed to them. 
The burden of taxation grew unendurable. Husbandry in some 
regions ceased, and great numbers w T ere reduced to beggary or 
driven into brigandage. The curiales, or members of the local 
senates, were made responsible for the payment of the taxes due 
the government from their respective communities, and hence office¬ 
holding became not an honor to be coveted but a burden to be 
evaded. It was this vicious system of taxation which more than 


313] 


GROWTH OF A CASTE SYSTEM 


217 


any other one cause contributed to the depopulation, impoverish¬ 
ment, and final downfall of the Empire. 

313. Growth of a Caste System. To escape from the intoler¬ 
able burdens many of the peasant farmers fled to the desert and 
became monks; others escaped across the frontiers and sought 
freedom among the barbarians. The well-to-do tried in every way 
to evade the burden of taxation and of office. To meet the situa¬ 
tion the government adopted the policy of tying everyone liable 
to taxation to his post or profession. The colonus, or peasant 
farmer, was attached to the land he worked and thus made a serf; 
the artisan was bound to his trade, the 
merchant to his business. Moreover, all 
offices, trades, and professions were, in so 
far as it was possible, made hereditary, 
children being forced to follow the occupa¬ 
tion of their father. Everyone was to re¬ 
main in the station in which he was born. 

Classes thus tended to become rigid hered¬ 
itary castes. Personal liberty disappeared. 

Perhaps we cannot better indicate the 
new relation to the Empire into which the 
head of the Roman state was brought by 
the innovations of Diocletian and his successor than by saying that 
the Empire now became the private estate of the sovereign and was 
managed just as any great Roman proprietor managed his domain. 

314. Persecution of the Christians. Toward the end of his 
reign Diocletian inaugurated against the Christians a persecution 
which continued long after his abdication, and which was the sever¬ 
est, as it was the last, waged against the Church by the pagan 
emperors. It was during this and the various other persecutions 
that vexed the Church in the second and third centuries that the 
Christians sometimes sought refuge in the Catacombs, those vast 
subterranean galleries and chambers under the city of Rome. Here 
they buried their dead, and on the walls of the chambers sketched 
rude symbols of their hope and faith. It was in the darkness of 
these subterranean abodes that Christian art had its beginnings. 



Fig. 73. Christ as 
the Good Shepherd 
(From the Catacombs) 





2l8 


DIOCLETIAN AND CONSTANTINE 


[§ 315 


315. The Abdication of Diocletian. After a reign of twenty 
years, becoming weary of the cares of state, Diocletian abdicated 
the throne and forced or induced his colleague Maximian also to 
lay down his authority on the same day. Galerius and Constantius 
were, by this act, advanced to the purple and made Augusti; and 
two new associates were appointed as Caesars. 

Diocletian then retired to his country seat at Salona, on the 
eastern shore of the Adriatic. It is related that, when Maximian 
wrote him urging him to endeavor with him to regain the power 
they had laid aside, he replied, "Were you but to come to Salona 
and see the cabbages which I raise in my garden with my own 
hands, you would no longer talk to me of empire.” 


II. REIGN OF CONSTANTINE THE GREAT (a. d. 306-337) 

316. The Battle of the Milvian Bridge (a.d. 312 ); "In this 
Sign conquer.” Galerius and Constantius, who became Augusti 
on the abdication of Diocletian and Maximian, had reigned to¬ 
gether only one year when Constantius died at York, in Britain. 
His soldiers, disregarding the rule of succession as determined 
by the system of Diocletian, proclaimed his son Constantine 
Emperor. Six competitors for the throne arose in different quarters. 
For eighteen years Constantine fought before he gained the 
supremacy. 

One of the most important of the battles that took place between 
the contending rivals for the imperial purple was the battle of 
the Milvian Bridge, about two miles from Rome. Constantine’s 
standard on this celebrated battlefield was the Christian cross. 
He had been led to adopt this emblem through the appearance, as 
once he prayed to the sun-god, of a cross over the setting sun, 
with this inscription above it: "In this sign conquer.” 1 Obedient 
unto the celestial vision, Constantine had at once made the cross 
his banner, and it was beneath this new emblem that his soldiers 
marched to victory at the battle of the Milvian Bridge. 

1 In hoc signo vinces; in Greek, ev roi/ry vUa. 


§ 317 ] CONSTANTINE ADOPTS CHRISTIANITY 


219 


317. Constantine makes Christianity the Religion of the 
Court. By a decree issued at Milan a.d. 313 , the year after the 
battle at the Milvian Bridge, Constantine placed Christianity on 
an equal footing with the other religions of the Empire. The lan¬ 
guage of this famous edict of toleration, the Magna Carta, as it 



Fig. 74. Arch of Constantine at Rome, as it Appears Today 

Erected by the Roman Senate in commemoration of Constantine’s victory over Maxentius 

at the Milvian Bridge 


has been called, of the Church, was in import as follows: "We 
grant to Christians and to all others full liberty of following that 
religion which each may choose.” "For the first time in history, 
the principle of universal toleration was [thus] officially laid 

down .” 1 

But by subsequent edicts Constantine made Christianity in effect 
the state religion and extended to it a patronage which he with¬ 
held from the old pagan, worship. He granted the Christian so¬ 
cieties the right to receive gifts and legacies, and he himself 
enriched the Church with donations of money and grants of land. 

1 The Cambridge Mediaeval History , vol. i, p. 5. An earlier edict of toleration by the 
emperor Galerius gave the Christians freedom of worship, but did not recognize the 
principle of universal toleration. 








220 


DIOCLETIAN AND CONSTANTINE 


[§31S 


This marks the beginning of the great possessions of the Church, 
and with these the entrance into it of a worldly spirit. From this 
moment can be traced the decay of its primitive simplicity and a 
decline from its early high moral standard. It is these deplorable 
results of the imperial patronage that Dante laments in his well- 
known lines: 

Ah, Constantine ! of how much ill was mother, 

Not thy conversion, but that marriage dower 
Which the first wealthy Father took from thee! 1 

Another of Constantine’s acts touching the new religion is of 
special historical interest and importance.' He recognized the 
Christian Sunday as a day of rest, forbidding ordinary work on 
that day, and ordering that Christian soldiers be then permitted 
to attend the services of their Church. This recognition by the 
civil authority of the Christian Sabbath meant much for the slave. 
Now, for the first time in the history of the Aryan peoples, the 
slave had one day of rest in each week. It was a good augury of 
the happier time coming when all the days should be his own. 

318. The Church Council of Nicaea ( a . d . 325). With a view 
to settling the controversy between theArians and theAthanasians 2 
respecting the nature of Christ,— the former denied his equality 
with God the Father,— Constantine called the first (Ecumenical 
or General Council of the Church at Nicaea, a town of Asia Minor, 
a.d. 325 . Arianism was denounced, and a formula of Christian 
faith adopted, which is known as the Nicene Creed. 

319. Constantine founds Constantinople, the New Rome, on 
the Bosphorus ( a . d . 330). After the recognition of Christianity, 
the most important act of Constantine was the selection of Byzan¬ 
tium, on the Bosphorus, as the new capital of the Empire. One 
reason which led the Emperor to select a new seat for his court 
and government was the ungracious conduct towards him of the 
inhabitants of Rome, because he had abandoned the worship of 

1 Inferno , xix, 115-117. 

a The Arians were the followers of Arius, a presbyter of Alexandria in Egypt; the 
Athanasians, of Athanasius, archdeacon and later bishop of the same city, and the 
champion of the orthodox or Catholic view of the Trinity. 


§ 320] 


THE PAGAN RESTORATION 


22 1 


the old national deities. But there were also military reasons, the 
most dangerous enemies of the Empire being now in the East; and 
also commercial, social, and political reasons, since through the 
Eastern conquests of Rome the center of population, wealth, and 
culture of the Empire had shifted eastward. 

The imperial invitation and the attractions of the court induced 
multitudes to crowd into the new capital, so that almost in a day 
the old Byzantium grew into a great city. In honor of the Em¬ 
peror the name was changed to Constantinople, the "City of 
Constantine.” The old Rome on the Tiber, emptied of its leading 
inhabitants, soon sank to the obscure position of a provincial 
town. 

320. The Pagan Restoration under Julian the Apostate 
(a.d. 361 - 363 ). A troubled period of nearly a quarter of a century 
followed the death of Constantine the Great, and then the imperial 
scepter came into the hands of Julian, called the Apostate because 
he abandoned Christianity and labored to restore the pagan wor¬ 
ship. In his efforts to restore paganism, however, Julian did not 
resort to the old means of persuasion,—"the sword, the fire, the 
lions.” One reason why he did not was because,under the softening 
influences of the very faith he sought to extirpate, the Roman 
world had already become imbued with a gentleness and humanity 
that rendered morally impossible the renewal of the Neronian and 
Diocletian persecutions. Julian’s chief weapon was the pen, for he 
was a writer and satirist of no mean talent. 

The disabilities under which Julian had placed the Christians 
were removed by his successor Jovian (a.d. 363 - 364 ) and Chris¬ 
tianity was again made the religion of the imperial court. 

References. Gibbon, E., chap, xvii (on the founding of Constantinople and 
the form of the government). Uhlhorn, G., Conflict of Christianity with 
Heathenism , bk. iii, chaps, i-iii. Firth, J. B., Constantine the Great. Stanley, 
A. P., Lectures on the History of the Eastern Church , lects. ii-v (for the history 
of the Council of Nicaea, 325 B.C.). Seeley, J. R., Roman Imperialism , lect. iii, 
’'The Later Empire.” The Cambridge Medieval History , vol. i, chaps, i-vii. 
Mason, A. J., The Persecution of Diocletian , chap. iii. Oman, C., The Byzantine 
Empire , pp. 13-30. Gardner. A., Julian the Philosopher , and the Last St niggle 
of Paganism against Christianity. 


CHAPTER XXXIII 


THE LAST CENTURY OF THE EMPIRE IN THE WEST 

(A.D. 376 - 476 ) 

321. Introductory: the Germans and Christianity. The two 

most vital elements in the Graeco-Roman world of the fifth century 
were the German (Teutonic) barbarians and Christianity. They 
had, centuries before this, as we have seen, come into certain 
relations to the Roman government and to Roman life; but 
during the period lying immediately before us they assumed an 
altogether new historical interest and importance. 

The two main matters, then, which will claim our attention 
during the century yet remaining for survey, will be (i) the 
struggle between the dying Empire and the young German races 
of the North; and ( 2 ) the final triumph of Christianity, through 
the aid of the temporal power, over expiring paganism. 

322. The Goths cross the Danube (a.d. 376 ). The year 376 
of the Christian era marks an event of the greatest importance in 
the East. The Visigoths (Western Goths) dwelling north of the 
Lower Danube appeared as suppliants in vast multitudes upon its 
banks. They said that a terrible race, whom they were powerless 
to withstand, had invaded their territories and spared neither their 
homes nor their lives. They begged permission of the Emperor 
Valens 1 to cross the river and settle in Thrace. Their petition 
was granted on condition that they surrender their arms and give 
up their children as hostages. 

The enemy that had so terrified the Visigoths were the Huns, 
a monstrous race of fierce nomadic horsemen from the vast steppes 
of Asia. Scarcely had the fugitives been received within the 
limits of the Empire before a large company of their kinsmen, the 

1 Valens (a.d. 364-3S7) was Emperor of the East. Valentinian (a. d. 364-375). 
Emperor of the West, had just died, and been succeeded by Gratian (a.d. 375-383). 


§ 323 ] PROHIBITION OF THE PAGAN CULTS 


223 


Ostrogoths (Eastern Goths), also driven from their homes by 
the same terrible enemy, crowded to the banks of the Danube and 
pleaded that they also might be allowed to place the river between 
themselves and their dreaded foe. But Valens, becoming alarmed 
at the presence of so many barbarians within his dominions, refused 
their request, whereupon they crossed the river with arms in 
their hands. 

Once within the Empire the Ostrogoths, joined by their Visi- 
gothic kinsmen, soon began to ravage the Danubian provinces. 
Valens dispatched swift messengers to Gratian, Emperor in the 
West, asking for assistance. Gratian was hurrying to the help of 
his colleague when news of his defeat and death at the hands of 
the barbarians was brought to him. He at once appointed as his 
associate Theodosius (a.d. 379-395), known afterwards as the 
Great, and intrusted him with the government of the East. Theo¬ 
dosius quickly reduced the Goths to submission. Great multitudes 
of them were settled upon the waste lands of Thrace, while more 
than forty thousand of these warlike barbarians, the destined sub¬ 
verted of the Empire, were enlisted in the imperial service. 

323. The Prohibition of the Pagan Cults. Both Gratian and 
Theodosius were zealous champions of the orthodox Church, and 
a large portion of the edicts issued during their joint reign had 
for aim the uprooting of heresy or the suppression of the pagan 
worship. At first the pagans were merely placed under certain 
disabilities, but finally it was made a crime for anyone to practice 
any pagan cult, or even to enter a temple. Even the private 
worship of the Lares and Penates was prohibited. The struggle 
between Christianity and heathenism was now virtually ended— 
and the "Galilean’’ had conquered. Pagan rites, however, especially 
in the country districts, were practiced secretly long after this. 

324. Emperor Theodosius the Great and Bishop Ambrose of 
Milan. A memorable incident, illustrative of the influence of the 
new religion that was now fast taking the place of paganism, marks 
the reign of Theodosius the Great. In a sedition the people of 
Thessalonica, in Macedonia, had murdered the general and several 
officers of the imperial garrison in that place. When intelligence 


224 


THE LAST CENTURY IN THE WEST [§ 325 

4 

of the event reached Theodosius his hasty temper broke through 
all restraint, and, moved by a spirit of savage vengeance, he 
ordered an indiscriminate slaughter of the inhabitants of Thes- 
salonica. The command was obeyed and at least seven thousand 
persons perished. 

Shortly after the massacre, the Emperor, as he was entering the 
door of the cathedral at Milan where he was wont to worship, was 
met at the threshold by the pious Bishop Ambrose, who, in the 
name of the God of justice and mercy, forbade him to enter the 
sacred place until he had done public penance for his awful crime. 
The commander of all the Roman legions was constrained to obey 
the unarmed pastor. In penitential garb and attitude Theodosius 
made public confession of his sin and humbly underwent the 
penance imposed by the Church. This passage of history is note¬ 
worthy as marking a stage in the moral progress of humanity. It 
made manifest how with Christianity a new moral force had 
entered the world to interpose, in the name of justice and human¬ 
ity, between the weak and defenseless and their self-willed and 
arbitrary rulers. 

325. Final Administrative Division of the Empire (a.d. 395 ). 
During the last years of his reign Theodosius ruled without a 
colleague. Upon his death the imperial government, as he had 
prearranged, was divided between his two sons, Arcadius and 
Honorius. Arcadius received the government of the East, and 
Honorius, still a mere child of eleven, the government of the 
West. This division was in no way different from those that 
had been repeatedly made since the time of Diocletian, and was 
not to affect the unity of the Empire. But so different was 
the trend of events in the two halves of the old Empire from this 
time on that the historians of Rome have generally allowed this 
division of the imperial rule to constitute a dividing line in the 
history of the Empire, and have begun here to trace separately the 
story of each part. 

326. The Empire in the East. The story of the fortunes of 
the Empire in the East need not detain us long here. The line of 
Eastern emperors lasted over a thousand years—until the capture 


§ 327 ] 


LAST TRIUMPH AT ROME 


225 


of Constantinople by the Turks, a.d. 1453. It will thus be seen 
that the greater part of its history belongs to the mediaeval period. 
Lp to the time of the dissolution of the Empire in the West the 
emperors of the East were engaged almost incessantly in suppress¬ 
ing uprisings of their Gothic allies or mercenaries, or in repelling 
invasions of different barbarian tribes. 

327. Last Triumph at Rome (a.d. 404). Only a few years had 
elapsed after the death of the great Theodosius before the bar¬ 
barians were trooping in vast hordes through all parts of the 
Empire. First, from Thrace and Mcesia came the Visigoths, led 
by the great Alaric. After a raid through Greece they crossed the 
Julian Alps and spread terror throughout Italy. Defeated by 
Stilicho, the renowned Vandal general of Honorius, they finally 
withdrew from Italy through the defiles of the Alps. A magnificent 
triumph at Rome celebrated the deliverance. It was the last 
triumph that Rome ever saw. Three hundred times—such is 
asserted to be the number—the imperial city had witnessed the 
triumphal procession of her victorious generals, celebrating con¬ 
quests in all quarters of the world. 

328. Last Gladiatorial Combat of the Amphitheater. The 
same year that marks the last military triumph at Rome signalizes 
also the last gladiatorial combat in the Roman amphitheater. It 
is to Christianity that the credit for the suppression, of these in¬ 
human exhibitions is entirely, or almost entirely, due. The pagan 
philosophers usually regarded them with indifference, often with- 
favor. They were defended on the ground that they fostered a 
martial spirit among the people and inured the soldiers to the 
sights of the battlefield. Hence gladiatorial games were sometimes 
actually exhibited to the legions before they set out on their 
campaigns. 

But the Christian Fathers denounced the combats as immoral, 
and strove in every possible way to create a public opinion against 
them. At length, in a.d. 325, the first imperial edict against them 
was issued by Constantine. From this time forward the exhibi¬ 
tions were under something of a ban, until their final abolition was 
brought about by an incident of the games that closed the triumph 


226 


THE LAST CENTURY IN THE WEST [§ 329 


of Honorius. In the midst of the exhibition a Christian monk 
named Telemachus, leaping into th6 arena, rushed between the 
combatants, but was instantly killed by a shower of missiles thrown 
by the people, who were angered by his interruption of their 
sport. The people, however, soon repented of their act; and 
Honorius himself, who was present, was moved by the scene. 
Christianity had awakened the conscience and touched the heart 
of Rome. The martyrdom of the monk led to an imperial edict 
"which abolished forever the human sacrifices of the amphitheater.” 

329 . Sack of Rome by Alaric (a.d. 4io). Shortly after Alaric's 
first invasion of Italy, he again crossed the mountains and led his 
hosts to the very gates of Rome. Not since the time of the dread 
Hannibal — more than six hundred years before this—had Rome 
been insulted by the presence of a foreign foe beneath her walls. 
Only by the payment of a great ransom did the city escape sack 
and pillage. 

After receiving the ransom Alaric withdrew his army from before 
Rome and established his camp in Etruria. The chieftain now 
demanded for his followers lands of Honorius, who, with his court, 
was safe behind the marshes of Ravenna ; but the Emperor treated 
all the proposals of the barbarian with foolish insolence. 

Rome paid the penalty. Alaric turned upon the city, resolved 
upon its plunder. The barbarians broke into the capital by night, 
"and the inhabitants were awakened by the tremendous sound of 
the Gothic trumpet.” Just eight hundred years had passed since 
its sack by the Gauls (sect. 248). Now it is given over for the 
second time as a spoil to barbarians. Alaric commanded his sol¬ 
diers to spare the lives of the people, and to leave untouched the 
treasures of the Christian churches; but the wealth of the citizens 
he permitted them to make their own. It was a rich booty with 
which they loaded their wagons, for within the palace of the 
Caesars and the homes of the wealthy were gathered the riches of 
a plundered world. 

330. The Death of Alaric (a.d. 410). After withdrawing his 
warriors from Rome, Alaric led them southward. As they moved 
slowly on, they piled still higher the wagons of their long trains 



Second 


>0N 


^y\LOMBAffi)S VAfWA 

\ burgundy 

U ^!US W3 


Danu 


, Florence 


c 0R$lC4 




REFERENCE 


First inroad of Huns 

Second .. 

Vandals 

Visigoths 

Ostrogoths 

Franks 

Jutes and Saxons 


[SICILY 


founded 




Greenwich 


Longitude 


MAP SHOWING 

BARBARIAN INROADS 

ON THE 

FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 

Movements shown down to A.D. 4?? 


ENGLISH MILES 

















































































§ 331 ] 


DISINTEGRATION OF THE EMPIRE 


227 


with the rich spoils of the cities and villas of Campania and other 
districts of southern Italy. In the villas of the Roman nobles the 
barbarians spread rare banquets from the stores of their well-filled 
cellars, and drank from jeweled cups the famed Falernian wine. 

Alaric’s designs of conquest in Africa were frustrated by his 
death. Tradition tells how, with religious care, his followers 
secured the body of their hero against molestation. The little river 
Busentinus, in northern Bruttium, was turned from its course with 
great labor, and in the bed of the stream was constructed a tomb, 
in which was placed the body of the king, with his jewels and 
trophies. The river was then restored to its old channel, and, 
that the exact spot might never be known, the prisoners who had 
been forced to do the work were all put to death. 

331 . The Disintegration of the Empire and the Beginnings 
of the Barbarian Kingdoms. We must now turn our eyes from 
Rome and Italy in order to watch the movement of events in 
the Western provinces of the Empire. During the forty years fol¬ 
lowing the sack of Rome by Alaric, the German tribes seized the 
greater part of these provinces and established in them what are 
known as the barbarian kingdoms. 

The Goths who had pillaged Rome and Italy, after the death of 
their great chieftain Alaric, under the lead of his successors, re¬ 
crossed the Alps, and, establishing their camps in the south of Gaul 
and the north of Spain, set up finally in those regions what is 
known as the kingdom of the Visigoths or West Goths. 

While the Goths were making these migrations and settlements, 
a kindred but less civilized tribe, the Vandals, moving from their 
seat in Pannonia, traversed Gaul, crossed the Pyrenees into Spain, 
and there occupied for a time a large tract of country, which in its 
present name of Andalusia preserves the memory of its barbarian 
settlers. Then they crossed the Strait of Gibraltar, overthrew the 
Roman authority in all North Africa, and made Carthage the seat 
of a dread corsair empire. 

Meanwhile the Franks, who about a century before the sack of 
Rome by Alaric had made their first settlement in Roman territory 
west of the Rhine, were increasing in numbers and in authority 


228 THE LAST CENTURY IN THE WEST [§331 

and were laying the foundation of what after the fall of Rome was 
to become known as the kingdom of the Franks—the beginning 
of the French nation of today. 

But the most important of all the settlements of the barbarians 
was being made in the remote province of Britain. In his efforts 
to defend Italy against her barbarian invaders, Stilicho had with¬ 
drawn the last legion from Britain, and had thus left unguarded 



Fig. 75. Germans Crossing the Rhine. (After a drawing by Alphonse 

de A T euville) 


the Hadrian Wall in the north (sect. 306) and the long coast line 
facing the continent. The Piets of Caledonia, taking advantage 
of the withdrawal of the guardians of the province, swarmed over 
the unsentineled rampart and pillaged the fields and towns of the 
south. The half-Romanized and effeminate provincials—no match 
for their hardy kinsmen who had never bowed their necks to the 
yoke of Rome—were driven to despair by the ravages of their 
relentless enemies, and, in their helplessness, invited to their aid 
the Angles and Saxons from the shores of the North Sea. These 
people came in their rude boats, drove back the invaders, and. 

















.§ 332] 


INVASION OF THE HUNS 


229 


being pleased with the soil and climate of the island, took posses¬ 
sion of the country for themselves and became the ancestors of 
the English people. 

332. Invasion of the Huns; Battle of Chalons (a.d. 451). 
The barbarians who were thus overunning and parceling out the 
inheritance of the dying Empire were now in turn pressed upon 
and terrified by a foe more hideous and dreadful in their eyes than 
they themselves were in the eyes of the Roman provincials. These 
were the Mongol Huns, from the region northwest of China, of 
whom we have already caught a glimpse as they drove the panic- 
stricken Goths across the Danube (sect. 322 ). At this time their 
leader was Attila, whom the affrighted inhabitants of Europe called 
the "Scourge of God.” It was Attila’s boast that the grass never 
grew again where once the hoof of his horse had trod. 

Attila defeated the armies of the Eastern Emperor and exacted 
tribute from the court of Constantinople. Then he turned west¬ 
ward and finally drew up his mighty hosts upon the plain of 
Chalons, in the north of Gaul, and there awaited the onset of the 
Romans and their allies. The conflict was long and terrible, but 
at last fortune turned against the barbarians, whose losses were 
enormous. Attila succeeded in escaping from the field and retreated 
with his shattered hosts across the Rhine. 

This great victory is placed among the significant events of 
history; for it decided that the Indo-European folk, and not 
the Mongolian Huns, should inherit the dominions of the expiring 
Roman Empire and control the destinies of Europe. 

333. Attila threatens Rome; his Death (a.d.453?). The year 
after his defeat at Chalons, Attila crossed the Alps and burned or 
plundered all the important cities of northern Italy. The Veneti 
fled for safety to the morasses at the head of the Adriatic (a.d. 452). 
Upon the islets where they built their rude dwellings there grew 
up in time the city of Venice, "the eldest daughter of the Roman 
Empire,” the "Carthage of the Middle Ages.” 

The barbarians threatened Rome; but Leo the Great, bishop of 
the capital, went with an embassy to the camp of Attila and 
pleaded for the city. He recalled to the mind of Attila how death 


230 


THE LAST CENTURY IN THE WEST [§ 334 . 


had overtaken the impious Alaric soon after he had given the 
imperial city as a spoil to his warriors, and warned him not to call 
down upon himself the like judgment of Heaven. Attila was 
induced to spare the city and to lead his warriors back beyond 
the Alps. Shortly after he had crossed the Danube he died sud¬ 
denly in his camp, and like Alaric was buried secretly. 

334 . Sack of Rome by the Vandals (a.d. 455 ). Rome had 
been saved a visitation from the spoiler of the North, but a new 
destruction was about to burst upon it by way of the sea from the 
South. Africa sent out another enemy whose greed for plunder 
proved more fatal to Rome than the eternal hate of Hannibal. 
The kings of the Vandal empire in North Africa had acquired as 
perfect a supremacy in the western Mediterranean as Carthage 
ever enjoyed in the days of her commercial pride. Vandal corsairs 
swept the seas and harassed all the shore-lands. In the year 455 a 
Vandal fleet led by the dread Geiseric sailed up the Tiber. 

Panic seized the people, for the name Vandal was pronounced 
with terror throughout the world. Again the great Leo, who had 
once before saved his flock from the fury of Attila, went forth to 
intercede in the name of Christ for the imperial city. Geiseric 
granted to the pious bishop the lives of the citizens, but said that 
the movable property of the capital belonged to his warriors. For 
fourteen days and nights the city was given over to the bar¬ 
barians. The ships of the Vandals, which almost hid with their 
number the waters of the Tiber, were piled, as had been the wagons 
of the Goths before them, with the rich and weighty spoils of the 
capital. Palaces were stripped of their furniture, and the walls of 
the temples denuded of the trophies of a hundred Roman victories. 
From the Capitoline sanctuary were borne off the golden candle¬ 
stick and other sacred things that Titus had stolen from the temple 
at Jerusalem 1 (sect. 302). 

The greed of the barbarians was sated at last, and they were 
ready to withdraw. The Vandal fleet sailed for Carthage, bearing, 


1 " The golden candlestick reached the African capital, was recovered a century later, 
and lodged in Constantinople by Justinian, and by him replaced, from superstitious 
motives, in Jerusalem. From that time its history is lost.” — Merivale 


§ 335 ] 


THE BREAK-UP OF THE EMPIRE 


231 


besides the plunder of the city, more than thirty thousand of the 
inhabitants as slaves. Carthage, through her own barbarian con¬ 
querors, was at last avenged upon her hated rival. The mournful 
presentiment of Scipio had been fulfilled (sect. 270). The cruel 
fate of Carthage might have been read again in the pillaged city 
that the Vandals left behind them. 

335. Last Act in the Break-up of the Empire in the West 
(a.d. 476). Only the shadow of the Empire in the West now re¬ 
mained. The provinces of Gaul, Spain, and Africa were in the 
hands of the Franks, the Goths, the Vandals, and various other 
intruding tribes. Italy, as well as Rome herself, had become again 
and again the spoil of the barbarians. The story of the twenty 
years following the sack of the capital by Geiseric affords only a 
repetition of the events we have been narrating. During these 
years several puppet emperors were set up by army leaders. The 
last was a child of only six years. By what has been called a freak 
of fortune this boy-sovereign bore the name of Romulus Augustus, 
thus uniting in the name of the last Roman emperor of the West 
the names of the founder of Rome and the establisher of the 
Empire. He reigned only one year, when Odoacer, the leader of 
a small German tribe, dethroned the child-emperor. 

The Roman Senate now sent to Constantinople an embassy to 
represent to the Eastern Emperor Zeno that the West was willing 
to give up its claims to an emperor of its own, and to request that 
the German chief, with the title of patrician , might rule Italy as 
his viceroy. With this rank and title Odoacer assumed the govern¬ 
ment of the peninsula. Thus Italy, while remaining nominally a 
part of the Empire, became in reality an independent barbarian 
kingdom, like those which had already been set up in the other 
countries of the West. The transaction marks not only the end 
of the line of Western Roman emperors, but also the virtual ex¬ 
tinction of the imperial rule in the western provinces of the Empire 
— the culmination of a century-long process of dissolution. 

This gradual transfer of leadership from the failing Roman race 
to the new barbarian folk was one of the most momentous revolu¬ 
tions in European history. It brought it about that the lamp of 


232 


THE LAST CENTURY IN THE WEST [§ 335 


culture, which since the second century of the Empire had burned 
with ever lessening light, was almost extinguished. It ushered in 
the so-called "Dark Ages.” 

But the revolution meant much besides disaster and loss. It 
meant the enrichment of civilization through the incoming of a 
new and splendidly endowed race. Within the Empire during sev¬ 
eral centuries three of the most vital elements of civilization, the 
Greek, the Roman, and the Christian, had been gradually blend¬ 
ing. Now was added a fourth factor, the Teutonic. It is this 
element which has had much to do in making modern civilization 
richer and more progressive than any preceding civilization. 

The downfall of the Roman imperial government in the West 
was, further, an event of immense significance in the political 
world, for the reason that it rendered possible the growth in western 
Europe of several nations or states in place of the single Empire. 

Another consequence of the fall of Rome was the development of 
the Papacy. In the absence of an emperor in the West the popes 
rapidly gained influence and power, and soon built up an ecclesias¬ 
tical empire that in some respects took the place of the old Roman 
Empire and carried on its civilizing work. 

References. Tacitus, Germania (the most valuable original account that 
we possess of the tribal life and customs of the Germans about the first century 
of our era). Hodgkin, T., Italy and her Invaders, vols. i, ii (on the Visigothic, 
the Iiunnish, and the Vandal invasion). Pelham, II. F., Outlines of Roman 
History , pp. 5 57 — 57—* BILL, S., Roman Society in the Last Centuiy of the 
Western Empire (a book of unsurpassed value). CURTEIS, A. M., History of the 
Roman Empire (from 395 to 800 A. D.), chaps, vi-ix. Gibbon, E., chap, ix, 
" 1 he State of Germany till the Invasion of the Barbarians in the Time of the 
Emperor Decius.” Church, W. R., The Beginnings of the Middle Ages; read 
the introduction and chap. i. Kingsley, C., The Roman and the Teuton , lects. 
i-iii. Creasy, E. S., Decisive Battles of the World, chap, vi, ” The Battle of 
Chalons, 451 a.d.” Emerton, E„ An Introduction to the Study of the Middle 
Ages, chaps, ii, iii. (These chapters cover admirably the following subjects: 

The Two Races,” " The Breaking of the Frontier by the Visigoths,” and 

The Invasion of the Iluns.”) The Cambridge Medieval History , vol. i, chaps, 
viii-xiv, xix, xx. For the causes of the failure of the Empire in the West, see 
the following: Hodgkin, T., Italy and her Invaders, vol. ii, pp. 532 — 613 ; 
Seeley, J. R., Roman Imperialism, lect. ii, pp. 37 - 64 ; Bury, J. B., A History 
of the Later Roman Empire, vol. i, chap. iii. 


CHAPTER XXXIV 


ARCHITECTURE, LITERATURE, LAW, AND SOCIAL LIFE 

AMONG THE ROMANS 

I. ARCHITECTURE AND ENGINEERING 

336 . Rome’s Contribution to Architecture. The architecture 
of the Romans was, in the main, an imitation of Greek models. 
But the Romans were not mere servile imitators. They not only 
modified the architectural forms they borrowed but they gave their 
structures a distinct character by the prominent use of the arch, 
which the Greek and oriental builders seldom employed, though 
they were acquainted with its principle. By means of it the 
Roman builders gave a new artistic effect to edifices, vaulted wide 
passages and chambers, carried stupendous aqueducts across the 
deepest valleys, and spanned the broadest streams with bridges 
that have resisted all the assaults of time and flood for eighteen 
centuries and more down to the present day. These applications 
of the principle of the arch were the great contribution which the 
Roman architects made to the science and art of building. 

337 . Amphitheaters. The Romans borrowed the plan of their 
theaters from the Greeks; their amphitheaters, however, were 
original with them. The Flavian amphitheater, generally desig¬ 
nated as the Colosseum, to which reference has already been made, 
speaks to us perhaps more impressively of the spirit of a past 
civilization than any other memorial of the ancient world. The 
ruins of this immense structure stand today as "the embodiment 
of the power and splendor of the Roman Empire.” 

Many of the most important cities of Italy and of the provinces 
were provided with amphitheaters similar in all essential respects 
to the Colosseum at the capital only much inferior in size, save the 
one at Capua, which was nearly as large as the Flavian structure. 

2 33 


234 


ARCHITECTURE AND ENGINEERING [§ 338 


338 . Aqueducts. The aqueducts of ancient Rome were among 
the most important of the utilitarian works of the Romans. The 
water system of the capital was commenced by Appius Claudius 
(about 313 b.c.). During the Republic four aqueducts in all were 
completed; under the emperors the number was increased to 
fourteen. 1 The longest of these was about fifty-five miles in 



Fig. 76. The Colosseum. (From a photograph) 


Monument of the glory of the Empire, and of its shame. — Dill 


length. The aqueducts usually ran beneath the surface, but when 
a depression was to be crossed they were lifted on arches, which 
sometimes were over one hundred feet high. 2 These lofty arches 
running in long, broken lines over the plains beyond the walls 
of Rome are today the most striking feature of the Campagna. 

339 . Thermae, or Baths. Among the ancient Romans bathing 
became in time a luxurious art. Under the Republic bathing 
houses were erected in considerable numbers. But it was during 
the imperial period that those magnificent structures to which the 

1 Several of these are still in use. 

2 The Romans carried their aqueducts across depressions and valleys on high 
arches of masonry, not because they were ignorant of the principle that water seeks 
a level, but for the reason that they could not make large pipes strong enough to 
resist the very great pressure to which they would be subjected. 













Fig. 77. The Roman Forum in 1885 




















































































§ 340] 


ROMAN LITERATURE 


235 


name Thermae properly attaches, were erected. These edifices 
were among the most elaborate and expensive of the imperial 
works. They contained chambers for cold, hot, and swimming 
baths; dressing rooms and gymnasia; museums and libraries; 
covered colonnades for lounging and conversation; and every 
other adjunct that could add to the sense of luxury and relaxa¬ 
tion. 1 Being intended to exhibit the liberality of their builders, 
they were thrown open to the public free of charge. 

II. LITERATURE, PHILOSOPHY, AND LAW 

340. Relation of Roman to Greek Literature: the Poets of 
the Republican Era. Latin literature was almost wholly imitative 
or borrowed, being a reproduction of Greek models ; nevertheless it 
performed a most important service for civilization: it was the 
medium for the dissemination throughout the world of the rich 
literary treasures of Greece. 

It was the dramatic works of the Greeks which were first 
studied and copied at Rome. Plautus and Terence (who wrote 
under the later Republic) are the most noted of the Roman drama¬ 
tists. Most of their plays were simply adaptations of Greek pieces. 

During the later republican era there appeared two eminent 
poets, Lucretius and Catullus. Lucretius was an evolutionist, and 
in his great poem On the Nature of Things we find anticipated 
many of the conclusions of modern scientists. Catullus was a lyric 
poet. He has been called the Roman Burns, as well on account of 
the waywardness of his life as from the sweetness of his song. 

341 . Poets of the Augustan Age. Three poets—Vergil (70- 
19 b.c.), Horace (65-8 B.c.),and Ovid (43 b.c.-a.d. 18) — have 
cast an unfading luster over the period covered by the reign of Au¬ 
gustus. So distinguished have these writers rendered the age in 
which they lived, that any period in a people’s literature signalized 
by exceptional literary taste and refinement is called, in allusion 
to this Roman era, an Augustan Age. 

1 Lanciani calls these imperial Thermae " gigantic clubhouses, whither the volup¬ 
tuary and the elegant youth repaired for pastime and enjoyment.” 


236 LITERATURE, PHILOSOPHY, AND LAW [§342 

342. Oratory among the Romans. "Public oratory,” as has 
been truly said, "is the child of political freedom, and cannot exist 
without it.” We have seen this illustrated in the history of the 
democratic cities of Greece (sect. 205). Equally well is it shown 
by records of the Roman state. All the great orators of Rome 
arose under the Republic. Among these Hortensius (114-50 b.c.), 
a learned jurist, and Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 b.c.) stand 
preeminent. Of these two Cicero is easily first,—"the most elo¬ 
quent of all the sons of Romulus.” 1 

343. Latin Historians. Ancient Rome produced four writers 
of history whose works have won for them a permanent fame,— 
Caesar, Sallust, Livy, and Tacitus. Of Caesar and his Commen¬ 
taries on the Gallic War we have learned in a previous chapter. 
His Commentaries will always be cited along with the Anabasis 
of Xenophon as a model of the narrative style of writing. Sallust 
(86-34 b.c.) was the contemporary and friend of Caesar. The 
Conspiracy of Catiline is one of his chief works. 

Livy (59B.C.-A.D. 17) was one of the brightest ornaments of 
the Augustan Age. Herodotus among the ancient, and Macaulay 
among the modern, writers of historical narrative are the names 
with which his is oftenest compared. His greatest work is his 
Annals, a history of Rome from the earliest times to the year 9 b.c. 
Unfortunately, only thirty-five of the one hundred and forty-two 
books 2 of this admirable production have been preserved. Many 
have been the laments over " the lost books of Livy.” As a chron¬ 
icle of actual events, Livy’s history, particularly in its earlier 
parts, is very unreliable; however, it is invaluable as an account 
of what the Romans themselves believed respecting the origin of 
their race, the founding of their city, and the deeds and virtues 
of their forefathers. 

1 Even more highly prized than his orations are his letters, for Cicero was a most 
delightful letter writer. His letters to his friend Atticus are among the most charming 
specimens of that species of composition. 

It should be borne in mind that a book in the ancient sense was simply a roll of 
manuscript or parchment, and contained nothing like the amount of matter held by an 
ordinary modern volume. Thus Caesar’s Gallic Wars , which makes a single volume of 
moderate size with us, made eight Roman books. 


§34^] SCIENCE, ETHICS, AND PHILOSOPHY 


237 


The most highly prized work of Tacitus is his Germania , a 
treatise on the manners and customs of the Germans. In this work 
Tacitus sets in strong contrast the virtues of the untutored 
Germans and the vices of the cultured Romans. 

344 . Science, Ethics, and Philosophy. Under this head may 
be grouped the names of Seneca, Pliny the Elder, Marcus Aurelius, 
and Epictetus. 

Seneca (about a.d. 1-65), moralist and philosopher, has already 
come to our notice as the tutor of Nero (sect. 301). He was .a 
disbeliever in the popular religion of his countrymen, and enter¬ 
tained conceptions of God and his moral government not very 
different from those of Socrates. 

Pliny the Elder (a.d. 23-79) is almost the only Roman who won 
renown as an investigator of the phenomena of nature. The only 
Avork of his that has been spared to us is his Natural History , a 
sort of Roman encyclopedia. 

Marcus Aurelius the emperor and Epictetus the slave hold the 
first place among the ethical teachers of Rome. They were the 
last eminent representatives of the philosophy of the Stoics. 

345 . Writers of the Early Latin Church. The Christian au¬ 
thors of the first two centuries, like the writers of the New Testa¬ 
ment, employed the Greek, that being the language of learning 
and culture. As the Latin tongue, however, gradually came into 
more general use throughout the West, the Christian writers 
naturally began to use it in the composition of their works. Hence 
almost all the writings of the Fathers of the Church produced in 
the AA^estern half of the Empire during the later imperial period 
were composed in Latin. Among the many names that adorn the 
Church literature of this period must be mentioned St. Jerome 
and St. Augustine. 

Jerome (a.d. 342 7-420) is held in memory especially through 
his translation of the Scriptures into Latin. This version is known 
as the Vulgate , and is the one which, with slight changes, is still 
used in the Roman Catholic Church. "It was to Europe of the 
Middle Ages,” asserts an eminent authority, "more than Homer 
AA r as to Greece.” 


238 LITERATURE, PHILOSOPHY, AND LAW [§346 


Aurelius Augustine (a.d. 354-430) was born near Carthage, in 
Africa. His City oj God, a truly wonderful work, possesses a 
special interest for the historian. The book was written just when 
Rome was becoming the spoil of the barbarians. It was designed 
to answer the charge of the pagans that Christianity, turning the 
people away from the worship of the ancient gods, was the cause 
of the calamities that were befalling the Roman state. 

346. Roman Law and Law Literature. Although the Latin 
writers in all the departments of literary effort which we have so 
far reviewed did much valuable work, yet the Roman intellect in 
all these directions was under Greek guidance. But in another 
department it was different. We mean, of course, the field of legal 
or juristic science. Here the Romans ceased to be pupils and 
became teachers. Nations, like men, have their mission. Rome’s 
mission was to give laws to the world. 

In the year 527 of the Christian era Justinian became emperor 
of the Roman Empire in the East. He almost immediately ap¬ 
pointed a commission, headed by the great lawyer Tribonian, to 
collect and arrange in a systematic manner the immense mass of 
Roman laws and the writings of the jurists. The undertaking was 
like that of the decemvirs in connection with the Twelve Tables, 
only far greater. The result of the work of the commission was 
what is known as the Corpus Juris Chilis, or " Body of the Civil 
Law.” This consisted of three parts,— the Code , the Pandects, and 
the Institutes. The Code was a revised and compressed collection 
of all the laws, instructions to judicial officers, and opinions on 
legal subjects promulgated by the different emperors since the time 
of Hadrian ; the Pandects (all-containing) were a digest or abridg¬ 
ment of the writings, opinions, and decisions of the most eminent 
of the old Roman jurists and lawyers. The Institutes were a con¬ 
densed edition of the Pandects, and were intended to form an 
elementary textbook for the use of students. 

The body of the Roman law thus preserved and transmitted 
was the great contribution of the Latin intellect to civilization. It 
has exerted a profound influence upon the law systems of almost 
all the European peoples. Thus does the once little Palatine city 


§ 347] 


EDUCATION 


239 


of the Tiber still rule the world. The religion of Judea, the arts 
of Greece, and the laws of Rome are three very real and potent 
elements in modern civilization. 

III. SOCIAL LIFE 

347. Education. Under the Republic there were no public 
schools in Rome; education was a private affair. Under the early 
Empire a mixed system prevailed, there being both public and 
private schools. Later, education came more completely under the 
supervision of the state. The salaries of the teachers and lecturers 
were usually paid by the municipalities, but sometimes from the 
imperial chest. 

The education of the Roman boy differed from that of the 
Greek youth in being more practical. The laws of the Twelve 
Tables were committed to memory ; and rhetoric and oratory were 
given special attention, as a mastery of the art of public speaking 
was an almost indispensable acquirement for the Roman citizen 
who aspired to take a prominent part in the affairs of state. 

After their conquest of Magna Graecia and Greece the Romans 
were brought into closer relations with Greek culture than had 
hitherto existed. The Roman youth were taught the language of 
Athens, often to the neglect, it appears, of their native tongue. 
Young men belonging to families of means not unusually went to 
Greece, just as the graduates of our schools go to Europe, to finish 
their education. Many of the most prominent statesmen of Rome, 
as, for instance, Cicero and Julius Caesar, received the advantages 
of this higher training in the schools of Greece. 

Somewhere between the ages of fourteen and eighteen the boy 
exchanged his purple-hemmed toga, or gown, for one of white wool, 
which was in all places and at all times the significant badge of 
Roman citizenship and Roman equality. 

348. Social Position of Woman. Until after her marriage the 
daughter of the family was kept in almost oriental seclusion. Mar¬ 
riage gave her a certain freedom. She might now be present at 
the races of the circus and the shows of the theater and amphi¬ 
theater,— a privilege rarely accorded to her before marriage. 


2 40 


SOCIAL LIFE 


[§ 349 


In the early virtuous period of the Roman state the wife and 
mother held a dignified and assured position in the household, and 
divorces were unusual, there being no instance of one, it is said, 
until the year 231 b.c.; but in later times her position became 
less honored and divorce grew to be very common. The husband 
had the right to divorce his wife for the slightest cause or for no 
cause at all. In this disregard of the sanctity of the family relation 
may doubtless be found one cause of the degeneracy and failure 
of the Roman stock. 

349. Public Amusements; the Theater and the Circus. The 

entertainments of the theater, the games of the circus, and the 
combats of the amphitheater were the three principal public 
amusements of the Romans. These entertainments, in general, 
increased in popularity as liberty declined, the great festive gather¬ 
ings at the various places of amusement taking the place of the 
political assemblies of the Republic. 

Tragedy was never held in high esteem at Rome; the people 
saw too much real tragedy in the exhibitions of the amphitheater 
to care much for the make-believe tragedies of the stage. The 
entertainments of the theaters usually took the form of comedies, 
farces, and pantomimes. The last were particularly popular, both 
because the vast size of the theaters made it quite impossible for 
the actor to make his voice heard throughout the structure and 
for the reason that the language of signs was the only language 
that could be readily understood by an audience made up of so 
many different nationalities as composed a Roman assemblage. 
Almost from the beginning the Roman stage was gross and immoral. 
It was one of the main agencies to which must be attributed the 
undermining of the originally sound moral life of Roman society. 

More important and more popular than the entertainments of 
the theater were the various games of the circus, especially the 
chariot races. 

350. Gladiatorial Combats. But far surpassing in their terrible 
fascination all other public amusements were the gladiatorial com¬ 
bats of the amphitheater. These seem to have had their origin in 
Etruria, whence they were brought to Rome. It was a custom 


§ 350] 


GLADIATORIAL COMBATS 


241 


among the early Etruscans to slay prisoners upon the warrior’s 
grave, it being thought that the manes of the dead delighted in 
the blood of such victims. In later times the prisoners were 
allowed to fight and kill one another, this being deemed more 
humane than slaying them in cold blood. 

The first gladiatorial spectacle at Rome was presented by two 
sons at the funeral of their father in the year 264 b.c. From this 
time the public taste for 
this species of enter¬ 
tainment grew rapidly, 
and by the beginning 
of the imperial period 
had become a perfect 
infatuation. It was now 
no longer the manes of 
the dead, but the spirits 
of the Jiving that the 
spectacles were intended 
to appease. At first the 
combatants were slaves, 
captives, or condemned 
criminals; but at last 
knights, senators, and 
even women descended voluntarily into the arena. Training 
schools were established at Rome and in other cities. Free citizens 
often sold themselves to the keepers of these seminaries; and to 
them flocked desperate men of all classes and ruined spendthrifts 
of the noblest patrician houses. Slaves and criminals were en¬ 
couraged to become proficient in the art by the promise of freedom 
if they survived the combats beyond a certain number of years. 

Sometimes the gladiators fought in pairs; again, great com¬ 
panies engaged at once in the deadly fray. They fought in chariots, 
on horseback, on foot,— in all the ways that soldiers were accus¬ 
tomed to fight in actual battle. The life of a wounded gladiator 
was, in ordinary cases, in the hands of the audience. If in response 
to his appeal for mercy, which was made by outstretching the 



Fig. 78 . Gladiators. (From an ancient 

mosaic) 





242 


SOCIAL LIFE 


[§ 351 


forefinger, the spectators waved their handkerchiefs or reached 
out their hands with thumbs extended, that indicated that his 
prayer had been heard ; but if they extended their hands with 
thumbs turned in, that was the signal for the victor to give him 
the death stroke. 

The rivalries between ambitious leaders during the later years 
of the Republic tended greatly to increase the number of gladia¬ 
torial shows, as liberality in arranging these spectacles was a sure 
passport to popular favor: magistrates were expected to give them 
in connection with the public festivals; the heads of aspiring 
families exhibited them "in order to acquire social position”; 
wealthy citizens prepared them as an indispensable feature of a 
fashionable banquet; the children caught the spirit of their elders 
and imitated them in their plays. It was reserved for the em¬ 
perors, however, to exhibit them on a truly imperial scale. Titus, 
upon the dedication of the Flavian amphitheater, provided games, 
mostly gladiatorial combats, that lasted one hundred days. Trajan 
celebrated his victories with shows that continued still longer, 
in the progress of which ten thousand gladiators fought upon 
the arena. 1 

351. Luxury. By luxury, as we shall use the word, we mean 
extravagant and self-indulgent living. This vice seems to have 
been almost unknown in early Rome. The primitive Romans 
were men of frugal habits, who found contentment in poverty 
and disdained riches. A great change, however, as we have seen, 
passed over Roman society after the conquest of the East and the 
development of the corrupt provincial system of the later Re¬ 
public. The colossal fortunes quickly and dishonestly amassed by 
the ruling class marked the incoming at Rome of such a reign of 
luxury as perhaps no other capital of the world ever witnessed. 
This luxury was at its height in the last century of the Republic 
and the first of the Empire. Never perhaps has great wealth been 
more grossly misused than during this period at Rome. A char¬ 
acteristically Roman vice of this age was gluttony, or gross 
table-indulgence. 

1 For the suppression of the gladiatori -1 games, see sect. 328. 


§ 352] 


STATE DISTRIBUTION OF CORN 


243 


352 . State Distribution of Corn. The free distribution of corn 
at Rome has been characterized as the "leading fact of Roman 
life.” It will be recalled that this pernicious practice had its 
beginnings in the legislation of Gaius Gracchus (sect. 275). Just 
before the establishment of the Empire over three hundred thou¬ 
sand Roman citizens were recipients of this state bounty. The 
corn for this enormous distribution was derived, in large part, from 
a grain tribute exacted of the African and other corn-producing 
provinces. In the third century, to the largesses of corn were added 
doles of oil, wine, and pork. 

The evils that resulted from this misdirected state charity can 
hardly be overstated. Idleness and all its accompanying vices 
were fostered to such a degree that we probably shall not be wrong 
in citing the practice as one of the chief causes of the demoraliz¬ 
ation of society at Rome under the emperors. 

353 . Slavery. The number of slaves under the later Republic 
and the earlier Empire was very great, some estimates making it 
equal to the number of freemen. Some large proprietors owned as 
many as twenty thousand. The love of ostentation led to the 
multiplication of offices in the households of the wealthy and the 
employment of a special slave for every different kind of work. 
Thus, in some families there was kept a slave whose sole duty it 
was to care for his master’s sandals. The price of slaves varied 
from a few dollars to ten or twenty thousand dollars,—these last 
figures being of course exceptional. Greek slaves were the most 
valuable, as their lively intelligence rendered them serviceable in 
positions calling for special talent. 

The slave class was chiefly recruited, as in Greece, by war and 
by the practice of kidnaping. Some of the outlying provinces 
in Asia and Africa were almost depopulated by the slave hunters. 
Delinquent taxpayers were often sold as slaves, and frequently 
poor persons sold themselves into servitude. 

The feeling entertained toward this unfortunate class in the 
later republican period is illustrated by Varro’s classification of 
slaves as "vocal agricultural implements,” and again by Cato the 
Censor’s (recommendation to masters to sell their old and decrepit 


244 


SOCIAL LIFE 


[§353 


slaves in order to save the expense of caring for them. In many 
cases, as a measure of precaution, the slaves were forced to work 
in chains and to sleep in subterranean prisons. Their bitter hatred 
toward their masters, engendered by harsh treatment, is witnessed 
by the well-known proverb, "As many enemies as slaves,” and 
by the servile revolts of the republican period. 

Slaves were treated better under the Empire than under the 
later Republic,—a change to be attributed doubtless to the influ¬ 
ence of Stoicism and of Christianity. From the first century of 
the Empire forward there is observable a growing sentiment of 
humanity toward the bondsman. Imperial edicts took away from 
the master the right to kill his slave or to sell him to the trader 
in gladiators, or even to treat him with undue severity, while the 
Christian priests encouraged the freeing of slaves as an act good 
for the soul of the master. 

Besides the teachings of philosophy and religion other influences, 
social and economic, were at work ameliorating the lot of the slave, 
and gradually changing the harsh system of slavery as it had 
developed in the ancient world into the milder system of serfdom, 
which characterized the society and life of the Middle Ages. This 
great revolution, perhaps more than any other single change, 
marked the transformation of the ancient into the mediaeval world 
and announced the opening of a new epoch in history. 

References. Lanciani, R., Ancient Rome in the Light of Recent Di scoveries 
and New Discoveries in the Forum. Fowler, H. N., Histoiy of Roman Liter¬ 
ature. Sellar, W. Y., The Roman Poets of the Republic and The Roman Poets 
of the Augustan Age, 2 vols. IIadley, J., Introduction to Roman Law, lect. iii, 
" The Roman Law before Justinian.” Gibbon, E., chap, xliv (for Roman juris¬ 
prudence ; this chapter is one of the most noted of Gibbon’s great work). 
Inge, W. R., Social Life in Rome under the Caesars. Dill, S., Roman Society in 
the Last Century of the Western Empire (read bk. v, " Characteristics of Roman 
Education and Culture in the Fifth Century ”). Preston, PI. W., and Dodge, 
L., The Private Life of the Romans. Gilman, A., The Story of Rome, chap, xviii, 
" Some Manners and Customs of the Roman People.” Johnston, H. W., The 
Private Life of the Romans. Friedlander, L„ Roman Life and Manners, 
3 vols. Davis, W. S., The Influence of Wealth in Imperial Rome. Abbott, F. F. 
The Common People of Ancient Rome. 


PART II. MEDIAEVAL AND MODERN 

HISTORY 


CHAPTER XXXV 
INTRODUCTION 

354. Preliminary Survey. As has already been noted, the 
fourteen centuries since the fall of the Roman Empire in the West 
are usually conceived as forming two periods,— the Middle Ages, 
or the period lying between the fall of Rome and the discovery of 
America by Columbus in 1492, and the Modern Age, which ex¬ 
tends from the latter event to the present time. 1 The Middle Ages 
again naturally subdivide into two periods,— the Dark Ages and 
the Age of Revival’, while the Modern Age, as we shall view it, 
also falls into two divisions,— the Era of the Protestant Reforma¬ 
tion and the Era of the Political Revolution. 

The Dark Ages, which extend from the fall of Rome to about 
the end of the tenth or the opening of the eleventh century, mark 
a period of decline in civilization 2 and a great lessening of the 
light of culture which for a thousand years and more had illumined 
the Mediterranean lands. The period was one of origins—of the 
beginnings of peoples, of languages, and of institutions. 

The Age of Revival begins about the opening of the eleventh 
century and merges with a new epoch during the fifteenth — the 
century which marks the discovery of the New World. During all 
this time civilization was making slow but sure advances: social 
order was gradually triumphing over feudal anarchy, and gov¬ 
ernments were becoming more regular. The last part of the 
period especially was marked by a great intellectual revival,—a 

1 See p. 12, n. i. 

2 This was a continuation of the decline which had begun before the break-up of the 
Western Roman Empire. See Ancient History , 2d Rev. Ed., sect. 548. 

2 45 


246 


INTRODUCTION 


[§355 


movement known as the Renaissance , or "New Birth,”—by im¬ 
provements, inventions, and discoveries, which greatly stirred men s 
minds and awakened them as from a sleep. The epoch witnessed 
the great struggle between the Papacy and the Holy Roman 
Empire, the two most historically important institutions of the 
mediaeval time. The Crusades, or Holy W ars, were the most 
remarkable undertakings of the age. 

The Era oj the Reformation embraces the sixteenth century 
and the first half of the seventeenth. The period is characterized 
by the great religious movement known as the Reformation, and 
the tremendous struggle between Catholicism and Protestantism. 
Almost all the wars of the period were religious wars. The last 
great combat was the Thirty Years’ War in Germany, which was 
closed by the celebrated Peace of Westphalia, in 1648. After 
this date the disputes and wars between parties and nations were 
dynastic or political rather than religious in character. 

The Era of the Political Revolution extends from the Peace of 
Westphalia to the Treaty of Versailles, 1919. The age is espe¬ 
cially characterized by a prolonged conflict between despotic and 
liberal principles of government. Outstanding events of the epoch 
were the English Revolution of 1688, the American Revolution of 
1776, the French Revolution of 1789, and the World War of 1914. 

Having now made a general survey of the region we are to 
traverse, having marked the successive stages of the progressive 
course of European civilization,— the intellectual, the religious, 
and the political revolution,— we must turn back to our starting 
point, the fall of Rome. 

355 . Relation to World History of the Fall of Rome. The 
calamity which in the fifth century befell the Roman Empire in 
the V ,T est is sometimes spoken of as an event marking the extinc¬ 
tion of ancient civilization. The treasures of the Old World are 
represented as having been destroyed, and mankind as obliged 
to take a fresh start,— to lay the foundations of civilization anew. 
It was not so. All or almost all that was really valuable in the 
accumulations of antiquity escaped harm, and became sooner or 
later the possession of the succeeding ages. 


§ 356 ] ELEMENTS OF EUROPEAN CIVILIZATION 247 

The event was not an unrelieved calamity, because fortunately 
the floods that seemed to be sweeping so much away were not the 
mountain torrent, which covers fruitful fields with worthless drift, 
but the overflowing Nile with its rich deposits. Over all the 
regions covered by the barbarian inundation a new stratum of 
population was thrown down, a new soil formed that was capable 
of nourishing a better civilization than any the world had yet 
seen. Or, to use the figure of Draper, we may liken the precipi¬ 
tation of the northern barbarians upon the expiring Roman 
Empire to the heaping of fresh fuel upon a dying fire ; for a 
time it burns lower and seems almost extinguished, but soon it 
bursts through the added fuel, and flames up with redoubled 
energy and ardor. 

356 . The Three Chief Elements of European Civilization. We 

must now notice what survived the catastrophe of the fifth cen¬ 
tury, what it was that Rome transmitted to the peoples of the new- 
forming world. This renders necessary an analysis of the elements 
of European civilization. 

European civilization is largely the result of the blending of 
three historic elements,— the Classical, the Hebrew, and the 
T eutonic. 

By the classical element in civilization is meant that whole 
body of arts, sciences, literatures, laws, manners, ideas, social 
arrangements, and models of imperial and municipal government 
— everything, in a word, save Christianity — that Greece and 
Rome gave to mediaeval and modern Europe. Taken together, 
these things constituted a valuable gift to the new northern race 
that was henceforth to represent civilization. It is true that the 
barbarian invaders of the Empire seemed at first utterly indifferent 
to these things; that the masterpieces of antique art were buried 
beneath the rubbish of sacked villas and cities; and that the pre¬ 
cious manuscripts of the old sages and poets, because they were 
pagan productions and hence regarded as dangerous to Christian 
faith, were often suffered to lie neglected in the libraries of cathe¬ 
drals and convents. Nevertheless, classical antiquity, as we shall 
learn, was the instructor of the Middle Ages. 


248 


INTRODUCTION 


[§357 


By the Hebrew element in history is meant Christianity. This 
has been a most potent factor in modern civilization. It tamed 
the barbarian conquerors of Rome. It filled Europe with mon¬ 
asteries, cathedrals, and schools. It inspired the Crusades and 
aided powerfully in the creation of chivalry. In short, it has so 
colored the life and so molded the institutions of the European 
peoples that their history is very largely a story of this religion, 
which, first going forth from Judea, was given to the younger 
world by the missionaries of Rome. Among the doctrines taught 
by the new religion were the unity of God, the brotherhood of 
man, and immortality,—doctrines which have greatly helped to 
make the modern so different from the ancient world. 

By the Teutonic element in history is meant the barbarian 
peoples of Indo-European speech—the Goths, Franks, Danes, 
Angles, Saxons, and kindred tribes 1 — who at the time of the 
break-up of the Roman Empire dwelt in central and northwestern 
Europe or had pushed into the Roman provinces and taken part 
in the overthrow of the Imperial Roman government. These folk, 
though of course they had the social institutions and customs 
of a primitive people, were poor in those things in which the 
Romans were rich. They had neither arts, nor sciences, nor 
philosophies. But they possessed, in general, a fine capacity 
for growth and culture and achievement; and because of 
this they were destined to play a great role in the history of 
later times. 

357 . Celts, Slavs, and Other Peoples. Having noticed the 
Romans and the Teutons, the two most important of the peoples 
that present themselves to us at the time of the fall of Rome, if 
we now name the Celts, the Slavs, the Arabians, and the Mongols 
and Turks, we shall have under view the chief actors in the 
drama of mediaeval and of a large part of modern history. 

At the commencement of the mediaeval era the Celts were in 
front of the Teutons, clinging to the western edge of the Euro¬ 
pean continent, and engaged in a bitter contest with these latter 

1 As to race, they belonged, in the main, to the "Nordic” race of present-day 
anthropologists. 


§ 357] CELTS, SLAVS, AND OTHER PEOPLES 


249 

folk, which, in the antagonism of England and Ireland, was 
destined to extend itself to our own day. 

The Slavs were in the rear of the Teutonic tribes, pressing 
them on, even as the Celts in front were struggling to resist their 
advance. These peoples, backward in civilization, will play only 

♦ 

an obscure part in the transactions of the mediaeval era, but in 
the course of the modern period will assume a most commanding 
position among the European nations. 

The Arabians were hidden in their deserts; but in the seventh 
century we shall see them, animated by a wonderful religious 
enthusiasm, issue from their peninsula and begin a contest with 
the Christian nations which, in its varying phases, was destined 
to fill a large part of the mediaeval period. 

The Mongols and Turks were buried in central Asia. They 
will appear late in the eleventh century, proselytes, for the most 
part, of Mohammedanism; and, as the religious ardor of the 
Semitic Arabians grows cool, we shall see the Islam standard car¬ 
ried forward by these zealous converts of another race, and finally, 
in the fifteenth century, we shall see the Crescent, the adopted 
emblem of the new religion, placed by the Ottoman Turks above 
the dome of St. Sophia in Constantinople. 

As the Middle Ages draw to a close, the remote nations of 
eastern Asia will gradually come within our circle of vision; 
and, as the Modern Age dawns, we shall catch a glimpse of new 
continents and strange races of men beyond the Atlantic. 


DIVISION I. THE MIDDLE AGES 


FIRST PERIOD. THE DARK AGES 

(From the Fall of Rome to the Eleventh Century) 

CHAPTER XXXVI 

THE BARBARIAN KINGDOMS 

In connection with the history of the break-up of the Roman 
Empire in the West we have already given some account of the 
migrations and settlements of the Teutonic tribes. In the present 
chapter we shalfmdlcate briefly the political fortunes, for the two 
centuries and more following the dissolution of the Roman govern¬ 
ment in the West, of the principal kingdoms set up by the Teutonic 
chieftains in the different parts of the old Empire. 

358 . Kingdom of the Ostrogoths (a.d. 493-554). Odoacer will 
be recalled as the barbarian chief who dethroned the last of the 
Western Roman emperors (sect. 335). His rule, which lasted only 
seventeen years, was brought to an end by the invasion of the 
Ostrogoths (Eastern Goths) under Theodoric, the greatest of their 
chiefs, who set up in Italy a new dominion known as the kingdom 
of the Ostrogoths. 

The reign of Theodoric covered thirty-three years (a.d. 493- 
527)—years of such quiet and prosperity as Italy had not known 
since the happy era of the Antonines. The king made good 
his promise that his reign should be such that " the only regret of 
the people should be that the Goths had not come at an earlier 
period.” His effort was to preserve Roman civilization, and to this 
end he repaired the old Roman roads, restored the monuments of 
the Empire that were falling into decay, and in so far as possible 
maintained Roman law and custom. 


250 












































, 






































' 


























§ 359] 


KINGDOM OF THE VISIGOTHS 


25 1 


I he kingdom established by the rare abilities of Theodoric lasted 
only twent3^-seven years after his death. Justinian, emperor of 
the East, taking advantage of that event, sent his generals to 
deliver Italy from the rule of the barbarians. The last of the 
Ostrogothic kings fell in battle, and Italy, with her fields rav¬ 
aged and her cities in ruins, was for a brief time reunited to 
the Empire. 

359 . Kingdom of the Visigoths (a.d. 415-711). The Visigoths 
(Western Goths) were already in possession of southern Gaul and 
the greater part of Spain when the Roman imperial government 
in the West was brought to an end by the act of Odoacer and his 
companions. They were driven south of the Pyrenees by the kings 
of the Franks, but held their possessions in Spain until the begin¬ 
ning of the eighth century, when their rule was ended by the 
Saracens (sect. 397). By this time the conquerors had mingled 
with the old Romanized inhabitants of Spain, so that in the veins 
of the Spaniard of today is blended the blood of Iberian, Celt, 
Roman, and Teuton, together with that of the last intruder, the 
African Moor. 

360 . Kingdom of the Vandals (a.d. 429-533). We have already 
spoken of the establishment in North Africa of the kingdom of the 
Vandals, and told how, under the lead of their king Geiseric, they 
bore in triumph down the Tiber the heavy spoils of Rome (sect. 
334). Being Arian Christians, the Vandals persecuted with furious 
zeal the orthodox party. Moved by the entreaties of the African 
Catholics, the Byzantine emperor Justinian sent his general Beli- 
sarius to drive the barbarians from Africa. The expedition was 
successful, and Carthage and the fruitful fields of Africa were 
restored to the Empire after having suffered the insolence of the 
barbarian conquerors for the space of above a hundred years. 
The Vandals remaining in the country were gradually absorbed 
by the old Roman population, and after a few generations no 
certain trace of the barbarian invaders could be detected in the 
physical appearance, the language, or the customs of the inhabit¬ 
ants of the African coast. The Vandal nation had disappeared; 
the name alone remained. 


252 


THE BARBARIAN KINGDOMS 


[§ 361 


361 . The Franks under the Merovingians 1 (a.d. 486 - 752 ). 
Even long before the fall of Rome the Franks, as we have seen 
(sect. 331), were on the soil of Gaul, laying there the foundations 
of the French nation and monarchy. Among their several chieftains 
at this time was Clovis. As the Roman power declined, Clovis 
gradually extended his authority over a great part of Gaul, reduc¬ 
ing to the condition of tributaries the various Teutonic tribes that 
had taken possession of different portions of the country. Upon 
his death (a.d. 511) his extensive dominions, in accordance with 
the ancient Teutonic law of inheritance, were divided among his 
four sons. About a century and a half of discord followed, by 
the end of which time the Merovingians had become so feeble and 
inefficient that they were pushed aside by an ambitious officer 
of the crown, known as Mayor of the Palace, and a new royal 
line—the Carolingian—was established. 

362 . Kingdom of the Lombards (a.d. 568 - 774 ). Barely a dec¬ 
ade had passed after the recovery of Italy from the Ostrogoths by 
the Eastern emperor Justinian, before a large part of the peninsula 
was again lost to the Empire through its conquest by another 
barbarian tribe known as the Lombards. 

The kingdom of the Lombards was destroyed by Charles the 
Great, the most noted of the Frankish rulers, in the year 774 ; but 
the blood of the invaders had by this time become intermingled 
with that of the former subjects of the Empire, so that throughout 
all that part of the peninsula which is still called Lombardy after 
them, one will today occasionally see the fair hair and light com¬ 
plexion which reveal the strain of German blood in the veins of 
the present inhabitants. 

363 . The Anglo-Saxons in Britain. We have already seen how 
in the time of Rome’s distress the barbarians secured a footing in 
Britain (sect. 331). The conquerors of Britain belonged to three 
Teutonic tribes,— the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes,— but among the 
Celts they all passed under the name of Saxons, and among them¬ 
selves, after they began to draw together into a single nation, under 
that of Angles, whence the name England (Angle-land). 

1 So called from Merowig, an early chieftain of the race. 


§ 364 ] TEUTONIC TRIBES OUTSIDE THE EMPIRE 253 

By the close of the sixth century the invading bands had set 
up in the island eight or nine, or perhaps more, kingdoms, — fre¬ 
quently designated, though somewhat inaccurately, as the Hep¬ 
tarchy. For the space of two hundred years there was an almost 
perpetual strife for supremacy among the leading states. Finally, 
Egbert, king of Wessex (a.d. 802-839), brought all the other 
kingdoms to a subject or tributary condition, and became in 
reality, though he seems never, save on one occasion, to have 
actually assumed the title, the first king of England. 

364 . Teutonic Tribes outside the Empire. We have now 
spoken of the most important of the Teutonic tribes which forced 
themselves within the limits of the Roman Empire in the West, 
and which there, upon the ruins of the civilization they had over¬ 
thrown, laid or helped to lay the foundations of the modern nations 
of Italy, Spain, France, and England. Beyond the boundaries of 
the old Empire were still other tribes and clans of this same mighty 
family of nations—tribes and clans that were destined to play 
great parts in European history. 

On the east, beyond the Rhine, were the ancestors of the 
modern Germans. Notwithstanding the immense hosts that the 
forests and morasses of Germany had poured into the Roman 
provinces, the western portion of the fatherland, in the sixth cen¬ 
tury of our era, seemed still as crowded as before the great migra¬ 
tion began. These tribes were yet barbarians in manners and, for 
the most part, pagans in religion. In the northwest of Europe 
were the Scandinavians, the ancestors of the modern Danes, 
Swedes, and Norwegians. They were as yet untouched either by 
the civilization or the religion of Rome. 

References. Hodgkin, T., Italy and her Invaders and Theodoric the Goth 
(Hodgkin is recognized as the best authority on the period of the migration). 
VlLLARl, P., The Barbarian Invasions of Italy. GuMMERE, F. B., Germanic 
Origins (an authoritative and interesting work on the early culture of the Ger¬ 
mans). Gibbon, E., chaps, xxxviii, xxxix. Church, R. W., The Beginning of 
the Middle Ages , chaps, i-v. Emerton, E., An Introduction to the Study of the 
Middle Ages , chaps, vi, vii. The Cambridge Medieval History , vol. i, chap, xv ; 
vol. ii, chaps, iv-vii. 


CHAPTER XXXVII 


THE CHURCH AND ITS INSTITUTIONS 

I. THE CONVERSION OF THE BARBARIANS 

365 . Introductory. The most important event in the history’ 
of the tribes that took possession of the Roman Empire in the 
West was their conversion to Christianity. Many of the bar¬ 
barians were converted before or soon after their entrance into the 
Empire; to this circumstance the Roman provinces owed their 
immunity from the excessive cruelties which pagan barbarians 
seldom fail to inflict upon a subjected enemy. Alaric left un¬ 
touched the treasures of the churches of the Roman Christians 
because his own faith was also Christian (sect. 329). For like 
reason the Vandal king Geiseric yielded to the prayers of Pope Leo 
the Great and promised to leave to the inhabitants of the imperial 
city their lives (sect. 334). The more tolerable fate of Italy, 
Spain, and Gaul, as compared with the hard fate of Britain, is 
owing, in part at least, to the fact that the tribes which overran 
those countries had become, in the main, converts to Christianity 
before they crossed the boundaries of the Empire, while-the Saxons, 
when they entered Britain, were still untamed pagans. 

366 . Conversion of the Franks; Importance of this Event. 
The Franks when they entered the Empire, like the Angles and 
Saxons when they landed in Britain, were still pagans. Christianity 
gained way very slowly among them until a supposed interposition 
by the Christian God in their behalf in a desperate battle led the 
king and nation to adopt the new religion in place of their 
old faith. 

"The conversion of the Franks,” says the historian Milman, 
"was the most important event in its remote as well as its 
immediate consequences in European history.” It was of such 

254 


§ 367] AUGUSTINE’S MISSION TO ENGLAND 


255 


moment for the reason that the Franks embraced the ortho¬ 
dox Catholic faith, while almost all the other Teutonic invaders 
of the Empire had embraced the heretical Arian creed. This 
secured them the loyalty of their Roman subjects and also gained 
for them the official favor of the Church of Rome. Thus was laid 
the basis of the ascendancy in the West of the Frankish kings. 

367 . Augustine's Mission to England. In the year 596 of the 
Christian era Pope Gregory I sent the monk Augustine with a 
band of forty companions to teach the Christian faith in Britain, 
in whose people he had become interested through seeing in the 
slave market at Rome some fair-faced captives from that remote 
region. 

The monks were favorably received by the English, who listened 
attentively to the story the strangers had come to tell them; and, 
being persuaded that the tidings were true, they burned the tem¬ 
ples of Woden and Thor, and were in large numbers baptized in 
the Christian faith. 1 One of the most important consequences of 
the conversion of Britain was the reestablishment of that connec¬ 
tion of the island with Roman civilization which had been severed 
by the calamities of the fifth century. As the historian Green 
says,—he is speaking of the embassy of St. Augustine,—"The 
march of the monks as they chanted their solemn litany was in one 
sense a return of the Roman legions who withdrew at the trumpet 
call of Alaric. . . . Practically Augustine’s landing renewed that 
union with the western world which the landing of Hengist had 

X 

destroyed. The new England was admitted into the older common¬ 
wealth of nations. The civilization., art, letters, which had fled 
before the sword of the English conquerors, returned with the 
Christian faith.” 

368 . The Conversion of Ireland; Iona. The spiritual con¬ 
quest of Ireland was effected largely by a zealous priest named 
Patricius (d. about a.d. 469), better known as St. Patrick, the 
patron saint of Ireland. With such success were his labors 

1 Read the story in Bede’s Ecclesiastical Histoiy, ii, 13 (Bohn). Bede the Venerable 
(about a.d. 673-735) was a pious and learned Northumbrian monk, who wrote, among 
other works, an invaluable one entitled Historia Ecclcsiastica Gentis Anglorum ("The 
Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation ”). 


256 THE CHURCH AND ITS INSTITUTIONS [§369 

attended that by the time of his death a great part of the island 
had embraced the Christian faith. Never did any race receive the 
Gospel with more ardent enthusiasm. The Irish or Celtic Church 
sent out its devoted missionaries into the Pictish highlands, into the 
forests of Germany, and among the wilds of Alps and Apennines. 
Among the numerous religious houses founded by the Celtic 
missionaries was the famous monastery established a.d. 563 by 
the Irish monk St. Columba, on the littie isle of Iona, just off 

the western coast 
of Scotland. Iona 
became a most re¬ 
nowned center of 
Christian learning 
and missionary zeal, 
and for almost two 
centuries was the 
point from which ra¬ 
diated light through 
the darkness of the 
surrounding hea¬ 
thenism. 

369 . The Conversion of Germany. The great apostle of Ger¬ 
many was the Saxon Winfrid, better known as St. Boniface. 
During a long and intensely active life he founded schools and 
monasteries, organized churches, preached and baptized, and at 
last died a martyr’s death (a.d. 753). Through him, as says Mil- 
man, the Saxon invasion of England flowed back upon the 
Continent. 

The Christianizing of the tribes of Germany relieved the Teu¬ 
tonic folk of western Europe from the constant peril of massacre 
by their heathen kinsmen, and erected a strong barrier in central 
Europe against the advance of the waves of Turanian paganism 
and Mohammedanism which for centuries beat so threateningly 
against the eastern frontiers of Germany. 1 



Fig. 79. The Ruins of Iona. (After an 
old drawing) 

That man is little to be envied whose patriotism would 
not gain force upon the plain of Marathon, or whose piety 
would not grow warmer among the ruins of Iona. — Dr. 
Johnson, A Journey to the Western Isles of Scotland 


1 The story of the conversion of the Scandinavian peoples, of the Eastern Slavs, and 
of the Hungarians belongs to a later period than that embraced by our present survey. 


§ 370 ] 


MONASTICISM DEFINED 


257 


II. THE RISE OF MONASTICISM 

370. Monasticism Defined; Teachings that fostered its 
Growth. It was during the period between the third and the sixth 
century that there grew up in the Church the institution known as 
Monasticism. This term, in its widest application, denotes a life of 
austere self-denial and of seclusion from the world, with the object 
of promoting the interests of the soul. As thus defined, the system 
embraced two prominent classes of ascetics: (1) hermits or ancho¬ 
rites—persons who, retiring from the world, lived solitary lives 
in desolate places; (2) cenobites or monks, who formed commu¬ 
nities and lived usually under a common roof. 

Christian asceticism was fostered by teachings drawn from 
various texts of the Bible. Thus the apostle St. Paul had said, "He 
that is unmarried careth for the things that belong to the Lord; 

. . . but he that is married careth for the things that are of the 
world.” 1 And Christ himself had declared, "If any man come to 
me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, 
and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be 
my disciple”; 2 and, again, he had said to the rich young man, 
"If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to 
the poor.” 3 These passages, and others like them, taken literally, 
tended greatly to confirm the belief of the ascetic that his life of 
isolation and poverty and abstinence was the most perfect life 
and the surest way to win salvation. 

371. Monasticism in the West. During the fourth century the 
anchorite type of asceticism, which was favored by the mild 
climate of the Eastern lands and especially by that of Egypt, 
assumed in some degree the monastic form; that is to say, the 
fame of this or that anchorite or hermit drew about him a number 
of disciples, whose rude huts or cells formed what was known as 
a laura, the nucleus of a monastery. 

Soon after the cenobite system had been established in the 
East it was introduced into Europe, and in an astonishingly short 
space of time spread throughout all the Western countries where 


1 1 Cor. vii. 32, 33. 


2 Luke xiv. 26. 


3 Matt. xix. 21. 


258 THE CHURCH AND ITS INSTITUTIONS [§372 

Christianity had gained a foothold. Here it prevailed to the almost 
total exclusion of the hermit mode of life. Monasteries arose on 
every side. The number that fled to these retreats was vastly 
augmented by the disorder and terror attending the invasion of 
the barbarians and the overthrow of the Empire in the West. 

372 . The Rule of St. Benedict. With a view to introducing 
some sort of regularity into the practices and austerities of the 
monks, rules were early prescribed for their observance. The three 
essential vows of the monk were poverty, chastity, and obedience. 

The greatest legislator of the monks was St. Benedict of Nursia 
(a.d. 480-543), the founder of the celebrated monastery of Monte 
Cassino, situated midway between Rome and Naples in Italy. His 
code was to the religious world what the Corpus Juris Chilis of 
Justinian (sect. 346) was to the lay society of Europe. Many of 
his rules were most wise and practical, as, for instance, one that 
made manual work a pious duty, and another that directed the 
monk to spend an allotted time each day in sacred reading. 

The monks who subjected themselves to the rule of St. Benedict 
were known as Benedictines. The order became immensely popu¬ 
lar. At one time it embraced about forty thousand abbeys. 

373 . Services Rendered by the Monks to Civilization. The 
early establishment of the monastic system in the Church resulted 
in great advantages to the new world that was shaping itself out 
of the ruins of the old. The monks, especially the Benedictines, 
became agriculturists, and by patient labor converted the wild and 
marshy lands which they received as gifts from princes and others 
into fruitful fields, thus redeeming from barrenness some of the 
most desolate districts of Europe. 

The monks also became missionaries, and it was largely to their 
zeal and devotion that the Church owed her speedy and signal 
victory over the barbarians. 

The quiet air of the monasteries nourished learning as well as 
piety. The monks became teachers, and under the shelter of the 
monasteries established schools which were the nurseries of learn¬ 
ing during the earlier Middle Ages and the centers for centuries of 
the best intellectual life of Europe. 


§ 374] THE EMPIRE WITHIN THE EMPIRE 


259 


The monks also became copyists, and with great painstaking and 
industry gathered and multiplied ancient manuscripts, and thus 
preserved and transmitted to the modern world much classical 
learning and literature that would otherwise have been lost. Almost 
all the remains of the Greek and 
Latin classics that we possess 
have come to us through the 
agency of the monks. They be¬ 
came also the chroniclers of the 
events of their own times, so 
that it is to them we are indebted 
for a great part of our knowl¬ 
edge of the early mediaeval cen¬ 
turies. Thus the scriptorium, 
or writing-room of the monastery* 
held the place in mediaeval soci¬ 
ety that the great publishing 
house holds in the modern world. 

The monks became, further, the almoners of the pious and the 
wealthy, and distributed alms to the poor and needy. Everywhere 
the monasteries opened their hospitable doors to the weary, the 
sick, and the discouraged. In a word, these retreats were the inns, 
the asylums, and the hospitals of the mediaeval ages. 

III. THE RISE OF THE PAPACY 

374. The Empire within the Empire. Long before the fall of 
Rome there had begun to grow up within the Roman Empire an 
ecclesiastical state, which in its constitution and its administrative 
system was shaping itself upon the imperial model. This spiritual 
empire, like the secular empire, possessed a hierarchy of officers, 
of whom deacons, priests or presbyters, and bishops were the 
most important. The bishops collectively formed what is known 
as the episcopate. There were four grades of bishops, namely, 
country bishops, city bishops, metropolitans (or archbishops), and 
patriarchs. At,the end of the fourth century there were five 



Fig. 80. A Monk Copyist. (From a 
manuscript of the fifteenth century) 





































































26 o THE CHURCH AND ITS INSTITUTIONS [§375 


patriarchates, that is, regions ruled by patriarchs. These centered 
in the great cities of Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, 
and Jerusalem. 

Among the patriarchs, the patriarchs of Rome were accorded 
almost universally a precedence in honor and dignity. They 
claimed further a precedence in authority and jurisdiction, and 
this was already very widely recognized. Before the close of the 
eighth century there was firmly established over a great part of 
Christendom what we may call an ecclesiastical monarchy. 

Besides the influence of great men—such as Leo the Great, 
Gregory the Great, and Nicholas I—who held the seat of St. 
Peter, there were various historical circumstances that contributed 
to the realization by the Roman bishops of their claim to 
supremacy. In the following sections we shall enumerate several 
of these favoring circumstances. These matters constitute the 
great landmarks in the rise and early growth of the Papacy. 

375. The Belief in the Primacy of St. Peter and in the 
Founding by him of the Church at Rome. It came to be believed 
that the apostle Peter had been given by the Master a sort of 
primacy among his fellow apostles. It also came to be believed 
that Peter himself had founded the Church at Rome, and had 
suffered martyrdom there under the emperor Nero. These beliefs 
and interpretations of history, which make the Roman bishops the 
successors of Peter and the holders of his seat, contributed greatly 
to enhance their reputation and to justify their claim to a primacy 
of authority over all the dignitaries of the Church. 

376. Advantages of their Position at the Political Center of 
the World. The claims of the Roman bishops were in the early 
centuries greatly favored by the spell in which the world was held 
by the name and prestige of imperial Rome. Thence it had been 
accustomed to receive commands in all temporal matters; how 
very natural, then, that thither it should turn for command and 
guidance in spiritual affairs. The Roman bishops in thus occupy¬ 
ing the geographical and political center of the world enjoyed a 
great advantage over all other bishops and patriarchs. The halo 
that during many centuries of wonderful history had gathered 


§ 377 ] EFFECT OF REMOVAL OF GOVERNMENT 


261 


about the Eternal City came naturally to invest with a kind of 
aureole the head of the Christian bishop. 

377. Effect of the Removal of the Imperial Government to 
Constantinople. Nor was this advantage that was given the 
Roman bishops by their position at Rome lost when the old capital 
ceased to be an imperial city. The removal, by the acts of Dio¬ 
cletian and Constantine, of the chief seat of the government to 
the East, instead of diminishing the power and dignity of the 
Roman bishops, tended greatly to promote their claims and au¬ 
thority. It left the pontiff the foremost personage in Rome. 

378. The Pastor as Protector of Rome. Again, when the bar¬ 
barians came, there came another occasion for the Roman bishops 
to widen their influence and enhance their authority. Rome’s 
extremity was their opportunity. Thus it will be recalled how, 
mainly through the intercession of the pious Pope Leo the Great, 
the fierce Attila was persuaded to turn back and spare the imperial 
city (sect. 333); and how the same bishop, in the year 455 of the 
Christian era, also appeased in a measure the wrath of the Vandal 
Geiseric and shielded the inhabitants from the worst passions of 
a barbarian soldiery (sect. 334). 

Thus, when the emperors, the natural defenders of the capital, 
were unable to protect it, the unarmed pastor was able, through 
the awe and reverence inspired by his holy office, to render 
services that could not but result in bringing increased honor and 
dignity to the Roman See. 

379. Effects upon the Papacy of the Extinction of the Roman 
Empire in the West. But if the misfortunes of the Empire in the 
West tended to the enhancement of the reputation and influence of 
the Roman bishops, much more did its final downfall tend to the 
same end. Upon the surrender of the sovereignty of the West 
into the hands of the emperor of the East, the bishops of Rome 
became the most important personages in western Europe, and, 
being so far removed from the court at Constantinople, gradually 
assumed almost imperial powers. To them were referred for de¬ 
cision the disputes arising between cities, states, and kings. Espe¬ 
cially did the bishops and archbishops throughout the West in 


262 


THE CHURCH AND ITS INSTITUTIONS [§ 3S0 


their contests with the Arian barbarian rulers look to Rome for 
advice and help. It is easy to see how greatly these things tended 
to strengthen the authority and increase the influence of the 
Roman bishops. 

380 . The Missions of Rome. Again, the early missionary zeal 
of the Church of Rome made her the mother of many churches, 
all of whom looked up to her with affectionate and grateful 
loyalty. Thus the Angles and Saxons, won to the faith by the 
missionaries of Rome, conceived a deep veneration for the Holy 
See and became its most devoted children. To Rome it was that 
the Christian Britons made their most frequent pilgrimages, and 
thither they sent their offering of St. Peter’s pence. And when 
the Saxons became missionaries to their pagan kinsmen of the 
Continent, they transplanted into the heart of Germany these same 
feelings of filial attachment and love. 

381 . Result of the Fall of Antioch, Jerusalem, and Alex¬ 
andria before the Saracens. In the seventh century all the great 
cities of the East fell into the hands of the Mohammedans. 1 This 
was a matter of tremendous consequence for the Church of Rome, 
since in every one of these great capitals there was, or might have 
been, a rival of the Roman bishop. The virtual erasure of Antioch, 
Jerusalem, and Alexandria from the map of Christendom left only 
one city, Constantinople, that could possibly nourish a rival of 
the Roman Church. Thus did the very misfortunes of Christendom 
give an added security to the ever-increasing authority of the 
Roman prelate. 

382 . The Popes become Temporal Sovereigns. A dispute 
about the use of images in worship, known in church history as 
the "War of the Iconoclasts,” 2 which broke out in the eighth cen¬ 
tury between the Greek churches of the East and the Latin 
churches of the West, drew after it far-reaching consequences as 
respects the growing power of the Roman pontiffs. Leo the 
Isaurian, who came to the throne of Constantinople a.d. 716, was 
a most zealous iconoclast. The Greek churches of the East having 
been cleared of images, the emperor resolved to clear also the 

1 See Chapter XL. 


2 Iconoclast means " image breaker.” 


§ 382] 


PAPACY GAINS TEMPORAL POWER 


263 

Latin churches of the West of these "symbols of idolatry.” To 
this end he issued a decree that they should not be used. The 
bishop of Rome, Pope Gregory II, not only opposed the execution 
of the edict, but by the ban of excommunication cut off the em¬ 
peror and all the iconoclastic churches of the East from com¬ 
munion with the Roman Catholic Church. Though images— 
paintings and mosaics only—were permanently restored in the 
Eastern churches in 842, still by this time other causes of alien¬ 
ation had arisen, and the breach between the two sections of 
Christendom could not now be closed. The final outcome was 
the permanent separation, in the last half of the eleventh century, 
of the Church of the East from that of the West. 

In this quarrel with the Eastern emperors the Roman bishops 
formed an alliance with the Frankish princes of the Carolingian 
house. Never did allies render themselves more serviceable to each 
other. The popes consecrated the authority and enhanced the 
power and prestige of the Frankish rulers; these in turn defended 
the popes against all their enemies, imperial and barbarian, and, 
dowering them with cities and provinces, laid the basis of their 
temporal power. 

Such in broad outline was the way in which grew up the 
Papacy, an institution which, far beyond all others, was destined 
to mold the fortunes and direct the activities of Western Christen¬ 
dom throughout the mediaeval time. 

References. Zimmer, H., The Irish Element in Mediaeval Culture (an author¬ 
itative and interesting account of the services rendered mediaeval civilization 
by the Irish monks). Kingsley, C., The Hermits. Montalembert (Count de), 
The Monks of the West from Saint Benedict to Saint Bernard , 7 vols. (an ardent 
eulogy of monasticism). Wishart, A. W., A Short History of Monks and Mon¬ 
asteries (the best short account in English). Emerton, E., Introduction to the 
Study of the Middle Ages, chap ix, " The Rise of the Christian Church.” 
Adams, G. B., Civilization during the Middle Ages , chap, vi, " The Formation 
of the Papacy.” Cardinal Gibbons, The Faith of our Fathers , chap, ix, " The 
Trimacy of Peter,” and chap, x, " The Supremacy of the Popes ” (an authori¬ 
tative statement of the Catholic view of these matteis). 


CHAPTER XXXVIII 


THE FUSION OF LATIN AND TEUTON 

383 . Introductory. The conversion of the barbarians and the 
development in Western Christendom of the central authority of 
the Papacy prepared the way for the introduction among the 
northern races of the arts and the culture of Rome, and hastened 
in Italy, Spain, and Gaul the fusion into a single people of the 
Latins and the Teutons, of which important matter we shall treat 
in the present chapter. We shall tell how these two races, upon the 
soil of the old Empire in the West, intermingled their blood, their 
languages, their laws, their usages and customs, to form new 
peoples, new tongues, and new institutions. 

384 . The Romance Nations. In some districts the barbarian 
invaders and the Roman provincials were kept apart for a long 
time by the bitter antagonism of race, and by a sense of injury 
on the one hand and a feeling of disdainful superiority on the 
other. But for the most part the Teutonic intruders and the 
Latin-speaking inhabitants of Italy, Spain, and France very soon 
began freely to mingle their blood by family alliances. 

It is quite impossible to say what proportion the Teutons bore 
to the Romans. Of course the proportion varied in the different 
countries. In none of the countries named, however, was it large 
enough to absorb the Latinized population; on the contrary, the 
barbarians were themselves absorbed, yet not without essentially 
changing the body into which they were incorporated. Thus, 
about the end of the fourth century everything in Italy, 
Spain, and France—dwellings, cities, dress, customs, language, 
laws, soldiers—reminds us of Rome. A little later and a great 
change has taken place. The barbarians have come in. For 
a. time we see everywhere, jostling each other in the streets 
and markets, crowding each other in the theaters and courts, 

264 


§ 385] 


THE ROMANCE LANGUAGES 


265 


kneeling together in the churches, the former Romanized subjects 
of the Empire and their uncouth Teutonic conquerors. But by the 
close of the ninth century, to speak in very general terms, the 
two elements have become quite intimately blended, and a cen¬ 
tury or two later Roman and Teuton have alike disappeared, and 
we are introduced to Italians, Spaniards, and Frenchmen. These 
we call Romance peoples, because at base they are Roman. 

385. The Formation of the Romance Languages. During the 
five centuries of their subjection to Rome, the natives of Spain 
and Gaul forgot their barbarous dialects and came to speak a'cor¬ 
rupt Latin. Now, in exactly the same way that the dialects of 
the Celtic tribes of Gaul and of the Celtiberians of Spain had 
given way to the more refined speech of the Romans, did the 
rude languages of the Teutons yield to the more cultured speech 
of the Roman provincials. In the course of two or three centu¬ 
ries after their entrance into the Empire, Goths, Lombards, 
Burgundians, and Franks had practically dropped their own tongue 
and were using that of the people they had subjected. 

But of course this provincial Latin underwent a great change 
upon the lips of the mixed descendants of the Romans and Teu¬ 
tons. Owing to the absence of a common popular literature, the 
changes that took place in one country did not exactly correspond 
to those going on in another. Hence, in the course of time, we 
find different dialects springing up, and by about the ninth century 
the Latin has virtually disappeared as a spoken language, and its 
place been usurped by what will be known as the Italian, Spanish, 
and French languages—all more or less resembling the ancient 
Latin, and all called Romance tongues, because children of the 
old Roman speech. 

386 . Ordeals. The agencies relied upon by the Teutons to 
ascertain the guilt or innocence of accused persons show in how 
rude a state the administration of justice among them was. One 
very common method of proof was by what were called ordeals, 
in which the question was submitted to the judgment of God. 
Of these the chief were the ordeal by fire, the ordeal by water, 
and the wager of battle. 


266 


THE FUSION OF LATIN AND TEUTON [§386 


The ordeal by fire consisted in taking in the hand a piece of red- 
hot iron, or in walking blindfolded with bare feet over a row of hot 
ploughshares laid lengthwise at irregular distances. If the person 
escaped unharmed, he was held to be innocent. Another way of 
performing the fire ordeal was by running through the flame of 
two fires built close together, or by walking over live brands. 

The ordeal by water 
was of two kinds, by 
hot water and by cold. 
In the hot-water or¬ 
deal the accused per¬ 
son thrust his arm 
into boiling water, and 
if no hurt was visible 
upon the arm three 
days after the oper¬ 
ation, the party was 
considered guiltless. 
In the cold-water trial 
the suspected person 
was thrown into a 
stream or pond ; if he 
floated, he was held 
to be guilty; if he 
Fig. 8i. Trial by Combat. (From a manu- sank, innocent, 
script of the fifteenth century; after Lacroix) The wager of battle 

or trial by combat was 

a solemn judicial duel. It was resorted to in the belief that God 
would give victory to the right. Naturally it was a favorite mode 
of trial among a people who found their chief delight in fighting. 
Even religious disputes were sometimes settled in this way. 1 

1 Ordeals are found among all primitive peoples. For proof by ordeal among the 
Hebrews, see Num. v. 11-31 and Josh. vii. 16-18. The combat between David and 
Goliath, being an appeal to the judgment of Heaven, possesses the essential element of 
the judicial duel. We also find an ordeal in the test proposed by Elijah to the prophets 
of Baal, — 1 Kings xviii. 17-40. It was the same among the Greeks. Thus, for instance, 
in Sophocles’ Antigone the watchman is made to say, " Prepared we were to take up red- 
hot iron, to walk through fire.” 

































































§ 387] 


REVIVAL OF THE ROMAN LAW 


267 


The ordeal was frequently performed by deputy, that is, one 
person for hire or for the sake of friendship would undertake it 
for another; hence the expression "to go through fire and water 
to serve one.” Especially was such substitution common in the 
judicial duel, since women and ecclesiastics were generally for¬ 
bidden to appear personally in the lists. 

387 . The Revival of the Roman Law. Now the barbarian 
law system, if such it can be called, the character of which we 
have merely suggested by the preceding illustrations, gradually 
displaced the Roman law in all those countries where the two sys¬ 
tems at first existed alongside each other, save in Italy and in 
southern France, where the provincials greatly outnumbered the 
invaders. But the admirable jurisprudence of Rome was eventu¬ 
ally to assert its superiority. About the close of the eleventh cen¬ 
tury there was a great revival in the study of the Roman law as 
embodied in the Justinian code, and in the course of a century 
or two this became either the groundwork or a strong modifying 
element in the law systems of almost all the peoples of Europe. 

What took place may be illustrated by reference to the fate 
of the Teutonic languages in Gaul, Italy, and Spain. As the 
barbarian tongues, after maintaining a place in those countries 
for two or three centuries, at length gave place to the superior 
Latin, which became the basis of the new Romance languages, 
so now in the domain of law the barbarian maxims and customs, 
though holding their place longer, likewise finally give way almost 
everywhere, in a greater or less degree, to the more excellent law 
system of the Empire. Rome must fulfill her destiny and give 
laws to the nations. 

References. Emerton, E., Introduction to the Middle Ages , chap, viii, " Ger¬ 
manic Ideas of Law.” Lea, H. C., Superstition and Force: Essays on the Wager 
of Law , the IVager of Battle , the Ordeal and Torture. Munro, I). C., and 
SELLERY, G. C., Mediceval Civilization , pp. 310-325. For the spread of the 
Latin speech and the formation of the Romance languages, see Abbott, F. R., 
The Common People of Ancient Rome , pp. 3-31. For the contribution made by 
the Germans to civilization, see Adams, G. B., Civilization during the Middle 
Ages, chap. v. For the influence of the Roman law upon the law systems of 
Europe, see Hadley, J., Introduction to Roman Law , lect. ii. 


+ 





CHAPTER XXXIX 

THE ROMAN EMPIRE IN THE EAST 

388. The Era of Justinian (a.d. 527 - 565 ). During the fifty 
years immediately following the fall of Rome, the Eastern em¬ 
perors struggled hard and sometimes doubtfully to withstand the 
waves of the barbarian inundation which constantly threatened to 
overwhelm Constantinople with the same awful calamities that 
had befallen the imperial city of the West. Had the New Rome— 
the destined refuge for a thousand years of Graeco-Roman learning 
and culture—also gone down at this time before the storm, the 
loss to the cause of civilization would have been incalculable. 

Fortunately, in the year 527, there ascended the Eastern throne 
a prince of unusual ability, to whom fortune gave a general of 
such rare genius that his name has been allotted a place in 
the short list of the great commanders of the world. Justinian 
was the name of the prince, and Belisarius that of the soldier. 
The sovereign has given name to the period, which is called after 
him the " Era of Justinian.” 

389. Justinian as the Restorer of the Empire and "The Law¬ 
giver of Civilization.” One of the most important matters in the 
reign of Justinian is what is termed the "Imperial Restoration,” 
by which is meant the recovery from the barbarians of several of 
the provinces of the West upon which they had seized. Africa, 
as we have seen (sect. 360), was first wrested from the Vandals. 
Italy was next recovered from the Goths and again made a part 
of the Roman Empire (a.d. 553). It was governed from Ravenna 
by an imperial officer who bore the title of Exarch. Besides re¬ 
covering Africa and Italy from the barbarians, Justinian also 
reconquered from the Visigoths the southeastern part of Spain. 

But that which gives Justinian’s reign a greater distinction than 

any conferred upon it by the achievements of his generals was 

268 


§ 390 ] 


THE EMPIRE BECOMES GREEK 


269 


the collection and publication by him of the Corpus Juris Civilis, 
the "Body of the Roman Law.” This work embodied all the law 
knowledge of the ancient Romans, and was the most precious 
legacy of Rome to the world. In causing its publication Justin¬ 
ian earned the title of "The Lawgiver of Civilization.” 

Justinian also earned renown as one of the world’s greatest 
builders. He rebuilt with increased splendor the Church of Santa 



q l K.V)F THE 
"'tGEPlDAE 


M ilan 


Cherson* 


Trapezus. 


CoiWirtUinople, 

AC- 


Corsioa 


'Romei 


’ P> icomecUa 


Sardinia; 


Cordow- 


& Balearic Is 


ASIA 

Ephesus.. 


Carthage 


Septum 


iAntinrh 


Rhegium 


.Caesarj 


•*. <•-.Carthage 


Cyprus 1 


Cyrene 




Imperial Possessions at Opening of Reign. 
_j Lands reconquered from the Barbarians. 


The Roman Empire under Justinian 


Sophia, which, founded by Constantine the Great, had been 
burned during a riot in his reign. The structure still stands, 
though the cross which originally’surmounted the dome was in 
1453 replaced by the Moslem crescent. In its interior decorations 
this edifice is regarded as one of the most beautiful creations of 
Christian art. 

390 . The Empire becomes Greek. Less than a generation after 
the death of Justinian, the Arabs, of whom we shall tell in the 
following chapter, entered upon their surprising career of conquest, 
which in a short time completely changed the face of the entire 
East, The conquests of the Arabs cut off from the Empire those 
provinces that had the smallest Greek element, and thus rendered 
the population subject to the Emperor more homogeneous, more 
thoroughly Greek. The Roman element disappeared, and though 
the government still retained the imperial character impressed 











270 


THE ROMAN EMPIRE IN THE EAST 


[§ 391 


upon it by the conquerors of the world, the court of Constantinople 
became Greek in tone, spirit, and manners. Hence, instead of 
longer applying to the Empire the designation Roman, many his¬ 
torians from this on call it the Greek or Byzantine Empire. 

391 . Services rendered European Civilization by the Roman 
Empire in the East. The later Roman Empire rendered such 
eminent services to the European world that it justly deserves an 
important place in universal history. First, as a military outpost 
it held the Eastern frontier of European civilization for a thousand 
years against Asiatic barbarism. 

Second, it was the keeper for centuries of the treasures of 
ancient civilization and the instructor of the new Western 
nations in law, in government and administration, in literature,, 
in painting, in architecture, and in the industrial arts. 1 

Third, it kept alive the imperial ideal, and gave this fruitful: 
idea and this molding principle back to the West in the time of 
Charlemagne. Without the later Roman Empire of the East there 
would never have been a Romano-German Empire of the West 
(sect. 403). 

Fourth, it was the teacher of religion and civilization to the 
Slavic races of eastern Europe. Russia forms part of the civilized 
world today largely by virtue of what she received from New 
Rome. 

4 

References. Gibbon, E., Decline and Fall, chaps, xl-xliv (on the reign of 
Justinian ; chap, xliv deals with Roman law). Oman, C. W. C., The Stay of 
the Byzantine Empire, chaps, iv-viii; and The Dark Apes, chaps, v, vi. Hodg¬ 
kin, T., Italy and her Invaders , vol. iv, " The Imperial Restoration.” Encyc. 
Brit., nth ed., Art. "Justinian I,” by James Bryce. Bury, J. B., Histoiy of the 
Later Roman Empire, 2 vols. (a work of superior scholarship). Harrison, F., 
Byzantine History in the Early Middle Ages (a brilliant lecture). The Cambridge 
Medieval History, vol. ii, chaps, i, ii. SEIGNOBOS, C., History of Mediaeval and' 
Modern Civilization, chap. iii. 

1 This instruction was imparted largely through the mediation of the Italian cities, 
and particularly of Venice, which throughout almost all the mediaeval time were in close 
political or commercial relations with Constantinople. 






CHAPTER XL 


THE RISE OF ISLAM 

We have seen the Teutonic barbarians of the North descend upon 
the Roman Empire and wrest from it all its provinces in the West. 
We are now to watch a similar attack made upon the Empire by 
the Arabs of the South, and to see wrested from the emperors of 
the East a large part of the lands still remaining under their rule. 

392 . The Religious Condition of Arabia before Mohammed. 
Before the reforms of Mohammed the Arabs were idolaters. Their 
holy city was Mecca. Here was the ancient and revered shrine of 
the Kaaba, where was preserved a sacred black stone that was 
believed to have been given by an angel to Abraham. To this 
shrine pilgrimages were made from the most remote parts of Arabia. 

But though polytheism was the prevailing religion of Arabia, 
still there were in the land many followers of other faiths. The 
Jews especially were to be found in some parts of the peninsula in 
great numbers. Through them the Arab teachers had become 
acquainted with the doctrine of one sole God. From the Christian 
converts dwelling among them they had learned something of the 
teachings of Christianity. It was from the Jews and Christians, 
doubtless, that Mohammed learned many of the doctrines that 
he taught. 

393 . Mohammed. Mohammed, the great prophefof the Arabs, 
was born in the holy city of Mecca, probably in the year 570 of 
the Christian era. In his early years he was a shepherd and a 
watcher of flocks by night, as the great religious teachers Moses 
and David had been before him. Later he became a merchant 
and a camel driver. 

Mohammed possessed a soul that was early and deeply stirred 
by the contemplation of those themes that ever attract the religious 

mind. He declared that he had visions in which the angel Gabriel 

271 


272 


THE RISE OF ISLAM 


[§ 394 


appeared to him and made to him revelations which he was com¬ 
manded to make known to his fellow men. The essence of the new 
faith which he was to teach was this: There is but one God, and 
Mohammed is his prophet. 

For a considerable time after having received this commission, 
Mohammed endeavored to gain adherents merely by persuasion ; but 
such was the incredulity which he everywhere met, that at the end 
of three years’ preaching his disciples numbered only forty persons. 

394. The Hegira ( a . d . 622). The teachings of Mohammed at 
last aroused the anger of a powerful party among the guardians of 
the national idols of the Kaaba, and they began to persecute 
Mohammed and his followers. To escape these persecutions Mo¬ 
hammed fled to the neighboring city of Medina. This Hegira , or 
"flight,” as the word signifies, occurred a.d. 622, and was con¬ 
sidered by the Moslems as such an important event in the history 
of their religion that they adopted it as the beginning of a new 
era, and from it still continue to reckon historical dates. 

His cause being warmly espoused by the inhabitants of Medina, 
Mohammed now assumed along with the character of a lawgiver 
and moral teacher that of a warrior. He declared it to be the will 
of God that the new faith should be spread by the sword. Within 
ten years from the time of the assumption of the sword by 
Mohammed, Mecca had been conquered and the new creed estab¬ 
lished widely among the independent tribes of Arabia. 

395. The Koran and its Teachings. The doctrines of Moham¬ 
medanism, or Islam, which means "submission to God,” are con¬ 
tained in the Koran, which is believed by the orthodox to have 
been written from all eternity on tablets in heaven. From time 
to time Mohammed recited to his disciples portions of the 
"heavenly book” as its contents were revealed to him in his 
dreams and visions. These communications were held in the 
"breasts of men,” or were written down upon potsherds and the 
ribs of palm leaves. Soon after the death of the prophet these 
scraps of writing were religiously collected, supplemented by tradi¬ 
tion, and then arranged chiefly according to length. Such was 
the origin of the sacred book of Islam. 















































§ 396] CONQUESTS IN ASIA AND NORTH AFRICA 273 

The fundamental doctrine of Islam is the unity of God: "There 
is no God save Allah” echoes throughout the Koran. To this is 
added the equally binding declaration that "Mohammed is the 
prophet of Allah.” 

The Koran inculcates the practice of four cardinal duties. The 
first is prayer; five times every day must the believer turn his 
face toward Mecca and engage in devotion. The second require¬ 
ment is almsgiving, or payment of the so-called holy tax. The 
third is keeping the fast of Ramadan, which lasts a whole month, 
throughout which period no food must be eaten during the day. 
The fourth duty is making a pilgrimage to Mecca. Every person 
who can possibly do so is required to make this journey. 

396. The Conquest of Persia, Syria, Egypt, and North 
Africa. For exactly one century after the death of Mohammed 
the caliphs or successors of the prophet 1 were engaged in an almost 
unbroken series of conquests. Persia was subjugated and the 
authority of the Koran was established throughout the land of 
the ancient fireworshipers. Syria was wrested from the Eastern 
Roman Empire and Asia Minor was overrun. Egypt and North 
Africa, the latter just recently delivered from the Vandals, were 
also snatched from the hands of the Byzantine emperors. 

By the conquest of Syria the birthplace of Christianity was lost 
to the Christian world. By the conquest of North Africa, lands 
whose history for a thousand years had been intertwined with that 
of the opposite shores of Europe, and which at one time seemed 
destined to share in the career of freedom and progress opening 
to the peoples of that continent, were drawn back into the fatalism 
and the stagnation of the East. From being an extension of 
Europe they became once more an extension of Asia. 

397. The Invasion of Europe ; the Battle of Tours ( a . d . 732). 
Thus, in only a little more than fifty years from the death of 
Mohammed his standard had been carried by the lieutenants of his 
successors through Asia to the Hellespont on the one side and 


1 Abu-Bekr (a.d. 632-634), Mohammed’s fathgr*in*law, was the first caliph. He was 
followed by Omar (a.d. 634-644), Othman (a.d. 644-655)* a °d Ali (a.d. 655 661), a .11 of 
whom fell by the hands of assassins. Ali was the last of the so-called orthodox caliphs. 


THE RISE OF ISLAM 


[§398 


274 


across Africa to Spain on the other. At each of these points 
Europe was threatened with invasion. As Draper pictures it, 
the Crescent, lying in a vast semicircle upon the northern shore 
of Africa and the curving coast of Asia, with one horn touching 
the Bosphorus and the other the Strait of Gibraltar, seemed about 
to round to the full and overspread all Europe. 

The first attempt at invasion of the continent was made in 
the East, where the Arabs vainly endeavored to gain control of 
the Bosphorus by wresting Constantinople from the hands of the 
Eastern emperors. Repulsed from Europe at its eastern extremity, 
they succeeded in gaining a foothold in Spain. Roderic, the last 
of the Visigothic kings, was hopelessly defeated in battle, and all 
the peninsula, save some mountainous regions in the northwest, 
quickly submitted to the invaders. By this conquest some of the 
fairest provinces of Spain were lost to Christendom for a period 
of eight hundred years. 

A few years after the conquest of Spain the Saracens crossed the 
Pyrenees and, established themselves in Gaul. This advance of 
the Moslems beyond the northern wall of Spain was viewed with 
the greatest alarm by all Christendom. In the year 732 of the 
Christian era, just one hundred years after the death of the prophet, 
the Franks, under their leader Charles Martel, and their allies met 
the invaders upon the plains of Tours in central Gaul and com¬ 
mitted to the issue of a single battle the fate of Christendom and 
the future course of history. The Arabs suffered an overwhelming 
defeat and soon withdrew behind the Pyrenees. 

The young Christian civilization of western Europe was thus 
delivered from an appalling danger such as had not threatened 
it since the fearful days of Attila and the Huns (sect. 332). 

398 . Golden Age of the Arabian Caliphate. At first the 
caliphs ruled from the city of Medina; then for almost a hundred 
years (a.d. 661-750) they issued their commands from the city 
of Damascus; later they established their court on the Lower 
Tigris at Bagdad,— the representative of the ancient Babylon,— 
which city for a period of more than five hundred years was a 
brilliant center of Arabian civilization. 


§ 399 ] DISMEMBERMENT OF THE CALIPHATE 


275 


The golden age of the caliphate of Bagdad covered the latter 
part of the eighth and the ninth century of our era, and was illus¬ 
trated by the reigns of such princes as Al-Mansur (a.d. 754-775) 
and the renowned Harun-al-Rashid (a.d. 786-809). During 
this period science and philosophy and literature were most 
assiduously cultivated by the Arabian scholars, and the court of 
the caliphs presented in culture and luxury a striking contrast 
to the rude and barbarous courts of the kings and princes of 
Western Christendom. 

399. The Dismemberment of the Caliphate. "At the close of 
the first century of the Hegira,” writes Gibbon, " the caliphs were 
the most potent and absolute monarchs of the globe.” But in a 
short time the extended empire, through the quarrels of sectaries 
and the ambitions of rival aspirants for the honors of the caliphate, 
was broken in fragments, and from three capitals—from Bagdad 
upon the Tigris, from Cairo upon the Nile, and from Cordova upon 
the Guadalquivir—were issued the commands of three rival 
caliphs, each of whom was regarded by his adherents as the sole 
rightful spiritual and civil successor of Mohammed. All, however, 
held the great prophet in the same reverence, all maintained with 
equal zeal the sacred character of the Koran, and all prayed with 
their faces turned toward the holy city of Mecca. 

400. The Civilization of Arabian Islam. The Saracens were 
co-heirs of antiquity with the Teutonic peoples. They made espe¬ 
cially their own the scientific accumulations of the ancient civiliza¬ 
tions and bequeathed them to Christian Europe. From the Greeks 
and the Hindus they received the germs of astronomy, geometry, 
medicine, and other sciences. The scientific writings of Aristotle, 
Euclid, and Galen, and Hindu treatises on astronomy and algebra 
were translated from the Greek and Sanskrit into Arabic, and 
formed the basis of the Arabian studies and investigations. Almost 
all of the sciences that thus came into their hands were enriched by 
them, and then transmitted to European scholars. 1 They devised 

1 What Europe received in science from Arabian sources is kept in remembrance by 
such words as alchemy , alcohol , alembic, algebra, alkali, almanac, azimuth, chemistry , 
elixir , zenith , and nadir. To how great an extent the chief Arabian cities became the man¬ 
ufacturing centers of the mediaeval world is indicated by the names which these places 


276 


THE RISE OF ISLAM 


[§400 


what is known from them as the Arabic or decimal system of no¬ 
tation, 1 and gave to Europe this indispensable instrument of all 
scientific investigations dependent upon mathematical calculations. 

In the lighter forms of literature—romance and poetry—the 
Arabs produced much that possesses a high degree of excellence. 
The inimitable tales of the Arabian Nights , besides being a valuable 
commentary on Arabian life and manners at the time of the cul¬ 
mination of oriental culture at the court of Bagdad, form also an 
addition to the imperishable portion of the literature of the world. 

All this literary and scientific activity found expression in the 
establishment of schools and libraries. In all the great cities of 
the Arabian empire, as at Bagdad, Cairo, and Cordova, centuries 
before Europe could boast anything beyond cathedral or monastic 
schools, great universities were drawing together vast crowds of 
eager young Moslems and creating an atmosphere of learning 
and refinement. 

In the erection of mosques and other public edifices the Arab 
architects developed a new and striking style of architecture,— 
one of the most beautiful specimens of which is preserved to us in 
the palace of the Moorish kings at Granada,— a style which has 
given to modern builders some of their finest models. 

References. The Koran is our chief source for a knowledge of Islam as 
a religion. The translation by Palmer is the best. Muir, W., The Life of 
Mohammed and The Rise and Decline of Islam (these works are written in an 
unfriendly and unsympathetic spirit). Smith, R. B., Mohammed and Moham¬ 
medanism (has a short bibliography). Sprenger, A., The Life of Mohammed. 
Irving, W., Mahomet and his Successors. Gibbon, E., The Decline and Fall , 
chaps. 1 -lii. Margoliouth, I). S., Mohammed and the Rise of Islam. Free¬ 
man, E. A., History and Conquests of the Saracens (a rapid sketch by a master). 
Syed Ameer Ali, The Spirit of Islam and Short History of the Saracens. 
Poole, S. L., Studies in a Mosque. Encyc. Brit., 1 ith ed., Arts. " Mahomet,” " Ma- 
hommedan Institutions,” " Mahommedan Law,” " Mahommedan Religion.” 
The Cambridge .Medieval Histoiy , vol. ii, chaps, x-xii. 


have given to various textile fabrics and other articles. Thus muslin comes from Mosul, on 
the Tigris, damask from Damascus, and gauze from Gaza. Damascus and Toledo blades 
tell of the proficiency of the Arab workmen in metallurgy. 

1 1 he figures or numerals, with the exception of the zero symbol, employed in their 
system, they seem to have borrowed from India. 


CHAPTER XLI 


CHARLEMAGNE AND THE RESTORATION OF THE EMPIRE 

IN THE WEST 

401 . Introductory. We return now to the West. The Franks, 
who with the aid of their confederates withstood the Saracens on 
the field of Tours and saved Europe from subjection to the Koran, 
are the people that first attract our attention. Charlemagne, or 
Charles the Great, their king, second of the Carolingian line 
(sect. 361), is the imposing figure that moves amidst all the events 
of the times,— indeed, is the one who makes the events and renders 
the period an epoch in universal history. 

402 . The Wars of Charlemagne. During his long reign of 
nearly half a century Charlemagne so extended the boundaries of 
his dominions that they came to embrace the larger part of western 
Europe. He made over fifty military campaigns, among which 
were those against the Lombards, the Saracens, and the Saxons. 

Among the first undertakings of Charlemagne was a campaign 
against the Lombards in Italy, whose king, Desiderius, was 
troubling the Pope. Charlemagne wrested from Desiderius all 
his possessions, shut up the unfortunate king in a monastery, and 
placed on his own head the famous "Iron Crown” 1 of the 
Lombards. 

In the year 778 Charlemagne gathered his warriors for a crusade 
against the Mohammedan Moors in Spain. He crossed the Pyrenees 
and succeeded in winning from the Moslems all the northeastern 
corner of the peninsula. These lands thus regained for Christendom 
he made a part of his dominions, under the title of the Spanish 
March. 2 

1 So called because there was wrought into it what was believed to be one of the 
nails of the cross upon which Christ had suffered. 

2 As Charles was leading his victorious bands back across the Pyrenees, the rear of 
his army, while hemmed in by the walls of the Pass of Roncevalles, was set upon by the 


278 


CHARLEMAGNE 


[§403 


But by far the greater number of the campaigns of Charlemagne 
were directed against the still pagan Saxons. These people were 
finally reduced to permanent submission and forced to accept 
Charlemagne as their sovereign and Christianity as their religion. 

403 . Restoration of the Empire in the West (a.d. soo). An 
event of seemingly little moment, yet in its influence upon suc¬ 
ceeding affairs of the very greatest importance, now claims our 
attention. Pope Leo III having called upon Charlemagne for aid 
against a hostile faction at Rome, the king soon appeared in 
person at the capital and punished the disturbers of the peace of 
the Church. The gratitude of Leo led him at this time to make 
a most signal return for the many services of the Frankish king. 
To understand his act a word of explanation is needed. 

For a considerable time a variety of circumstances had been 
fostering a growing feeling of enmity between the Italians and 
the emperors at Constantinople. Just at this time, by the crime 
of the Empress Irene, who had deposed her son, Constantine VI, 
and put out his eyes that she might have his place, the Byzantine 
throne was vacant, in the estimation of the Italians, who con¬ 
tended that the crown of the Caesars could not be worn by a 
woman. In view of these circumstances Pope Leo and those 
about him conceived the purpose of taking away from the hereti¬ 
cal and effeminate Greeks the imperial crown and bestowing it 
upon some strong and orthodox and worthy prince in the West. 

Now, among all the Teutonic chiefs of Western Christendom 
there was none who could dispute in claims to the honor with the 
king of the F ranks, the representative of a most illustrious house 
and the strongest champion of the young Christianity of the West 
against her pagan foes. Accordingly, as Charlemagne was par¬ 
ticipating in the solemnities of Christmas Day in the basilica of 
St. Peter at Rome, the Pope approached the kneeling king, and 
placing a crown of gold upon his head proclaimed him Emperor 
and Augustus (a.d. 800). 

wild mountaineers (the Gascons) and cut to pieces before he could give relief. Of the 
details of this event no authentic account has been preserved ; but long afterwards, asso¬ 
ciated with the fabulous deeds of the hero Roland, it formed a favorite theme of the 
tales and songs of the Trouveurs of northern France (sect. 509). 





























§ 404 ] CHARLES THE GREAT AS A RULER 


279 

The intention of Pope Leo was, by a sort of reversal of the act 
of Constantine the Great, to bring back from the East the seat of 
the imperial court; but what he really accomplished was a restora¬ 
tion of the line of emperors in the West, which three hundred and 
twenty-four years before had been ended by Odoacer (sect. 335). 

We say this was what he actually effected; for the Greeks of 
the East, disregarding wholly what the Roman people and the 
Pope had done, maintained their line of emperors just as though 
nothing had occurred in Italy. So now from this time on for cen¬ 
turies there were, most of the time, two emperors, one in the East 
and another in the West, each claiming to be the rightful successor 
of Caesar Augustus. 

This revival of the Empire in the West was one of the most 
important matters in European history. It gave to the following 
centuries "a great political ideal,” which was the counterpart of 
the religious ideal of a universal Church embodied in the Papacy, 
and which was to shape large sections of mediaeval history. 

404. Charles the Great as a Ruler. Charlemagne must not be 
regarded as a warrior merely. His most noteworthy work was 
that which he effected as a legislator and administrator. He ruled 
his Empire with the constant solicitude of a father. The char¬ 
acter of his government is revealed by his celebrated Capitularies. 
These were not laws proper, but collections of decrees, decisions, 
and instructions covering matters of every kind, civil and religious, 
public and domestic. They show what were Charlemagne’s ideas 
of what his chiefs or his subjects needed in the way of advice, 
suggestion, or command. 

Charlemagne, particularly after his coronation as Emperor, exer¬ 
cised as careful a superintendence over religious as over civil 
affairs. He called synods or councils of the clergy of his domin¬ 
ions, presided at these meetings, and addressed to abbots and 
bishops fatherly words of admonition, reproof, and exhortation. 

Education was also a matter to whigh Charlemagne gave zealous 
attention. He was himself from first to last as diligent a student 
as his busy life permitted. He never ceased to be a learner. In 
his old age he tried to learn to write but found that it was too 


28 o 


CHARLEMAGNE 


[§ 405 


late. Distressed by the dense ignorance all about him, he labored 
to instruct his subjects, lay and clerical, by the establishment of 
schools and the multiplication and dissemination of books through 
the agency of the copyists of the monasteries. He invited from 
England the celebrated Alcuin, one of the finest scholars of the 
age, and with his help organized what became known as the Palace 
School, in which his children and courtiers and he himself were 
pupils. 

405. The Death of Charlemagne ( 814 ) ; Results of his Reign. 
Charlemagne enjoyed the imperial dignity only fourteen years. He 
died in 814. By the almost universal verdict of students of the 
mediaeval period, he has been pronounced the most imposing per¬ 
sonage that appears between the fall of Rome and the fifteenth 
century. His greatness has erected an enduring monument for itself 
in his name, the one by which he is best known,— Charlemagne. 

Among the results of the reign of Charlemagne we should note 
at least the two following. First, he did for Germany what Caesar 
did for Gaul,— brought this barbarian land within the pale of 
civilization and made it a part of the new-forming Romano- 
German world. 

Second, he kneaded into something like a homogeneous mass 
the various racial elements composing the mixed society of the 
wide regions over which he ruled. Throughout his long and vigor¬ 
ous reign that fusion of Roman and Teuton of which we spoke in 
an earlier chapter went on apace. He failed indeed to unite the 
various races of his extended dominions in a permanent political 
union, but he did much to create among them those religious, intel¬ 
lectual, and social bonds which were never afterwards severed. 
From his time on, as it has been concisely expressed, there was 
a Western Christendom. 

406. Division of the Empire; the Treaty of Verdun ( 843 ). 

Charlemagne was followed by his son Lewis, surnamed the Pious 
(814-840). Upon the death of Lewis fierce contention broke out 
among his surviving sons, Lewis, Charles, and Lothair, and myriads 
of lives were sacrificed in the unnatural strife. Finally, by the 
famous Treaty of Verdun, the Empire was divided as follows: to 


406] 


THE TREATY OF VERDUN 


281 


Lewis was given the part east of the Rhine, the nucleus of the 
later Germany; to Charles, the part west of the Rhone and the 
Meuse, one day to become France; and to Lothair, the narrow 
central strip between these, stretching across Europe from the 
North Sea to the Mediterranean,' and including the rich lands of 
the lower Rhine, the valley of the Rhone, and the larger part of 
Italy. To Lothair also was given the imperial title. 

This treaty is celebrated, not only because it was the first great 
treaty among the European states, but also on account of its 
marking the divergence from one another, and in some sense the 
origin, of two of the great nations of modern Europe,—Teutonic 
Germany and Romanic France. As shown by the celebrated 
bilingual oath of Strassburg, 1 there had by this time grown up 
in Gaul, through the mixture of~Yhe-qprovincial Latin with Ger¬ 
man elements, a new speech, which was do grow into the French 
tongue,—the firstborn of the Romance languages. 

In the year 962 a strong king of Germany, Otto the Great, again 
revived the Empire (for a generation no one had borne the 
imperial title), which now came to be called the Holy Roman 
Empire. Respecting the great part that the idea of the Empire 
played in subsequent history we shall speak in a later chapter 
(Chapter XLV). 

References. Eginhard (Einhard), Life of the Emperor Karl the Great (trans¬ 
lation by William Glaister recommended). Einhard was Charles’ confidential 
friend and secretary. Hodgkin, T., Charles the Great , and Momrert, J. I., 
///story of Charles the Great (the first is the best short biography in English). 
Bryce, J., The Holy Roman Empire , chaps, iv, v (gives a clear view of the 
import of the restoration of the Empire). Emerton, E., Zntroduction to the 
Middle Ages , chaps, xii-xiv. West, A. F., Alcuin and the Rise of the Christian 
Schools , and Mullinger, J. B., The Schools of Charles the Great. Adams, G. B., 
Civilization during the Middle Ages, chap. vii. The Cambridge Medieval History , 

vol. ii, chaps, xviii, xix, xxi. Davis, H. W. C., Charlemagne. • 

/ 

1 This was an oath of friendship and mutual fidelity taken by Lewis and Charles 
just before the Treaty of Verdun (in 842). The text of the oath has been preserved 
both in the old German speech and in the new-forming Romance language. It is 
interesting as affording the oldest existing specimens of these languages. 


CHAPTER XLII 

THE NORTHMEN: THE COMING OF THE VIKINGS 

407 . The Northern Folk. Northmen, Norsemen, Scandina¬ 
vians are different names applied in a general way to the early 
inhabitants of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. For the reason 
that those making settlements in England came for the most part 



Fig. 83. A Viking Ship 

It was the custom of the Northmen to bury their dead sea-king near the sea in his ship 
and over the spot to raise a great mound of earth. The bcfat shown in the cut was found 
in 1880 in a burial mound at Gokstad, South Norway. Its length is 78 feet. From the 
mode of sepulture it is inferred that the mound was raised between a.d. 700 and 1000 


from Denmark, the term Danes is often used with the same wide 
application by the English writers. These people formed the 
northern branch of the Teutonic family. 

For the first eight centuries of our era the Norsemen are prac¬ 
tically hidden from our view in their remote Northern home; but 
towards the end of the eighth century their black piratical crafts 
are to be seen creeping along the coasts of Britain, Ireland, and 
Gaul, and even venturing far up the inlets and creeks. Soon all 
the shores of the countries visited were dotted with their stations 
and settlements. With a foothold once secured, fresh bands came 
from the Northern peninsulas, and the stations in time grew into 

282 










§ 408 ] ICELAND AND GREENLAND 283 

permanent colonies. These marauding expeditions and colonizing 
enterprises did not cease till late in the eleventh century. 

The most noteworthy characteristic of these Northmen is the 
readiness with which they laid aside their own manners, habits, 
ideas, and institutions, and adopted those of the country in which 
they established themselves. " In Russia they became Russians ; in 
France, Frenchmen; in Italy, Italians; in England, Englishmen.” 

408. Colonization of Iceland and Greenland; the Discovery 
of America. Iceland was settled by the Northmen in the ninth 
century; 1 about 
a century later 
Greenland was 
discovered and 
settled by them. 

As early as the 
opening of the 
eleventh centu¬ 
ry, America was 
reached by their 
ships; the" Vin- 
land” of their 
traditions prob¬ 
ably was some 
part of the New 

England coast. Whether these first visitors to the continent ever 
made any settlements in the new land is a disputed question. 

409. The Norsemen in Russia. While the Norwegians were 
sailing boldly out into the Atlantic and taking possession of the 
isles and coasts of the western seas, the Swedes were pushing their 
crafts across the Baltic and troubling the Finns and Slavs on the 

1 Iceland became the literary center of the Scandinavian world. There grew up here 
a class of scalds, or bards, who, before the introduction of writing, preserved and trans¬ 
mitted orally the sagas, or legends, of the Northern races. About the middle of the 
thirteenth century these poems and legends were gathered into collections known 
as the Elder or Poetic Edda and the Younger or Prose Edda. These are among the 
most interesting and important of the literary memorials that we possess of the early 
Teutonic peoples. They reflect faithfully the beliefs and customs of the Norsemen, and 
the wild, adventurous spirit of their sea-kings. 



Discoveries of the Northmen 









284 


THE COMING OF THE VIKINGS 


[§410 


eastern shore of that sea. Either by right of conquest or through 
the invitation of the contentious Slavonic clans, the renowned 
Scandinavian chieftain Ruric acquired, about the middle of the 
ninth century, kingly dignity, and became the founder of the 
first royal line of Russia. 

410 . The Danish Conquest of England. The Danes began to 
make descents upon the English coast toward the close of the 
eighth century. They were not content with plunder, but, being 
pagans, took special delight in burning the churches and monas¬ 
teries of the now Christian Anglo-Saxons, or English, as we shall 
hereafter call them. In a short time fully one half of England 
was in their hands. Just when it began to look as though the 
hard-pushed English would be wholly enslaved or driven from the 
island by the heathen intruders, Alfred (871-901), later to be 
known as Alfred the Great, 1 came to the throne of Wessex. He 
finally gained some advantage over the Danes, but could not 
expel them from the island, and by the celebrated Treaty of 
Wedmore (878), gave up to them all the northeastern part 
of England. 

For a full century following the death of Alfred his successors 
were engaged in a constant struggle to hold in restraint the Danes 
already settled in the land, or to protect their domains from fresh 
invasions. In the end the Danes got the mastery, and Canute, 
king of Denmark, became king of England (1016). For eighteen 
years he reigned in a wise and parental way. Altogether the Danes 
ruled in England about a quarter of a century, and then the old 
English line was restored in the person of Edward the Confessor 
(1042). 

1 Alfred is the only sovereign of England on whom the title of Great has been con¬ 
ferred. Perhaps his best claims to this distinction spring from his work as a lawgiver 
and a patron of learning. The code that he made formed the basis of early English 
jurisprudence. Alfred also fostered learning by himself becoming a translator. Here we 
have the beginnings of the prose literature of England. "The mighty roll of the 
prose books that fill her libraries,” writes Green, "begins with the translations of Alfred, 
and above all with the Chronicle of his reign.” The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle here alluded 
to was a minute and chronological record of events, probably begun in systematic form 
in Alfred’s reign and continued down to the year 1154. It was kept by the monks of 
different monasteries, and forms one of our most valuable sources for early English history. 


§ 411 ] 


THE NORTHMEN IN GAUL 


285 


411 . Settlement of the Northmen in Gaul. The Northmen 
began to make piratical descents upon the coasts of Gaul before 
the end of the reign of Charlemagne. The great king had been 
dead only thirty years when these sea rovers ascended the Seine 
and sacked Paris (845). At last the Carolingian king, Charles 
the Simple, did something very like what Alfred the Great had 
done across the Channel only a short time before. He granted 
to Rollo, the leader of the Northmen who had settled at Rouen, 
a large section of country in the north of Gaul, upon condition of 
homage and conversion (912). In a short time the newcomers had 
adopted the language, the manners, and the religion of the French, 
and had caught much of their vivacity and impulsiveness, without, 
however, any loss of their own native virtues. This transformation 
in them we may conceive as being recorded in their transformed 
name,—Northmen becoming softened into Norman. 

412 . Normandy in French History. The establishment of a 
Scandinavian settlement in Gaul proved a momentous matter, not 
only for the history of the French people, but for the history of 
European civilization as well. This Norse factor was destined to 
be one of the most important of all those various racial elements 
which on the soil of the old Gaul blended to create the richly 
dowered French nation. For many of the most romantic passages 
of her history France is indebted to the adventurous spirit of the 
descendants of these wild rovers of the sea. The knights of Nor¬ 
mandy lent an added splendor to French knighthood, and helped 
greatly to make France the hearth of chivalry and the center of 
the crusading movement of the eleventh and twelfth centuries. 
Nor was the influence of the incoming of the Scandinavian race 
felt upon French history alone. Normandy became the point of 
departure of enterprises that had deep and lasting consequences 
for Europe at large (see Chapter XLIV). 

References. Keary, C.F., The Vikings in Western Christendom. Pauli, R., 
The Life of Alfred the Great (the best life of the great king). Green, J. R., The 
Conquest of England ; all excepting chaps, x and xi. Du Chaillu, P. B., The 
Viking Age , 2 vols. (reflects the life and ideals, customs and manners of the 
Norsemen). Macfadyen, D., Alfred the West Saxo/i. 


SECOND PERIOD. THE AGE OF REVIVAL 


(From the Opening of the Eleventh Century to the Discovery of America by 

Columbus in 1492) 

CHAPTER XLIII 

FEUDALISM AND CHIVALRY 

I. FEUDALISM 

413 . Feudalism defined. Feudalism is the name given to a 
special form of society and government, based upon a peculiar 
tenure of land, which prevailed in Europe during the latter part 
of the Middle Ages, attaining, however, its most perfect develop¬ 
ment in the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries. 

A feudal estate, which might embrace a few acres or an entire 
country, was called a fief, or feud , whence the term Feudalism. 
The person granting a fief was called the suzerain, liege, or lord ; 
the one receiving it, his vassal, liegeman, or retainer. 

414 . The Ideal System. The few definitions given above will 
render intelligible the following explanation of the theory of the 
feudal system. In theory all the kings of the earth were vassals 
of the Emperor, who according to good imperialists was God’s 
vassal, and according to good churchmen, the Pope’s. The kings 
received their dominions as fiefs to be held on conditions of loy¬ 
alty to their suzerain and of fealty to right and justice. Should 
a king become disloyal, or rule unjustly or wickedly, through such 
misconduct he forfeited his fief, and it might be taken from him 
by his suzerain and given to another worthier liegeman. 

In the same way as the king received his fief from the Emperor, 
so might he grant it out in parcels to his chief men, they, in return 
for it, promising, in general, to be faithful to him as their lord, 

and to serve and aid him. In like manner these immediate vassals 

286 


§ 415 ] 


CEREMONY OF HOMAGE 


287 


of the king or suzerain might parcel out their domains in smaller 
tracts to others, on conditions similar to those upon which they 
had themselves received theirs; and so on down through any 
number of stages. 

We have thus far dealt only with the soil of a country. We 
must next notice what disposition was made of the people under 
this system. The king on receiving his fief was intrusted with 
sovereignty over all persons living upon it; he became their 
commander, their lawmaker, and their judge. Then, when he 
parceled out his fief among his great men, he invested them, within 
the limits of the fiefs granted, with all his own sovereign rights. 
Each vassal became a virtual sovereign in his own domain. And 
when these great vassals subdivided their fiefs and granted por¬ 
tions of them to others, they in turn invested their vassals with 
more or less of those powers of sovereignty with which they 
themselves had been clothed. 1 

To illustrate the workings of the system, we will suppose the 
king or suzerain to be in need of an army. He calls upon his own 
immediate vassals for aid; these in turn call upon their vassals; 
and so the order runs down through the various ranks of retain¬ 
ers. The retainers in the lowest rank rally around their respective 
lords, who, with their bands, gather about their lords, and so on 
up through the rising tiers of the system, until the immediate 
vassals of the suzerain, or chief lord, present themselves before 
him with their graduated trains of followers. The array consti¬ 
tutes a feudal army,—a splendidly organized body in theory, but 
in fact an extremely poor instrument for warfare. 

Such was the ideal feudal state. It is needless to say that the 

* 

ideal was never perfectly realized. The system simply made more 
or less distant approaches to it in several European countries. 

415. The Ceremony of Homage. A fief was conferred by a 
very solemn and peculiar ceremony called homage. The person 
about to become a vassal, kneeling with uncovered head, placed 

1 The holders of small fiefs were not allowed to exercise the more important func¬ 
tions of sovereignty. Thus, of the estimated number of 70,000 fief holders in France in 
the tenth century, only between 100 and 200 possessed the right "to coin money, levy 
taxes, make laws, and administer their own justice.” 


288 


FEUDALISM AND CHIVALRY 


[§416 


his hands in those of his future lord and solemnly vowed to be 
henceforth his man 1 and to serve him faithfully even with his life. 
This part of the procedure, sealed with a kiss, was what properly 
constituted the ceremony of homage. It was accompanied by an 
oath of fealty, and the whole was concluded by the act of investi¬ 
ture, whereby the lord put his vassal in actual possession of the 
land or, by placing in his hand a clod of earth or a twig, symbol¬ 
ized the delivery to him of the estate for which he had just now 
done homage and sworn fealty. 

416. The Relations of Lord and Vassal. In general terms the 
duty of the vassal was service; that of the lord, protection. The 
most honorable service required of the vassal, and the one most 
willingly rendered in a martial age, was military aid. The liege¬ 
man must always be ready to follow his lord upon his military ex¬ 
peditions; but the time of service for one year was usually not more 
than forty days. He must defend his lord in battle; if he should 
be unhorsed, must give him his own animal; and if he should 
be made a prisoner, must offer himself as a hostage for his release. 
He must also give entertainment to his lord and his retinue on 
their journeys. 

Among other incidents attaching to a fief were what were known 
as reliefs, escheats, and aids. 

A relief was the name given to the sum of money which an 
heir upon coming into possession of a fief must pay to the lord 
of the domain. This was often a large amount, being usually the 
entire revenue of the estate for one year. 

By escheat was meant the falling back of the fief into the hands 
of the lord through failure of heirs. If the fief lapsed through 
disloyalty or other misdemeanor on the part of the vassal, this 
was known as forfeiture. 

Aids were sums of money which the lord had a right to demand 
to enable him to meet unusual expenditures, especially for defray¬ 
ing the expense of knighting his eldest son, for providing a mar¬ 
riage dower for his eldest daughter, and for ransoming his own 
person in case he were made a prisoner of war. The chief return 


1 Latin homo, whence " homage.” 


§417] 


SERFS AND SERFDOM 


289 


that the lord was bound to make to the vassal as a compensation 
for these various services was justice and protection,—by no means 
a small return in an age of turmoil and insecurity. 

417. Serfs and Serfdom. The vassals, or fief holders of vari¬ 
ous grades, constituted only a small proportion, perhaps five per 
cent or less, of the population of the countries where feudalism 
came to prevail. The great bulk of the folk were agricultural 
serfs. 1 These were the men who actually tilled the soil. Just 
how this servile class arose is not positively known. In some 
countries at least they seem to have been the lineal descendants of 
the slaves of Roman times. Their status varied greatly from coun¬ 
try to country and from period to period; that is to say, there 
came to be many grades of serfs filling the space between the actual 
slave and the full freeman. Consequently it is impossible to give 
any general account of the class which can be regarded as a true 
picture of their actual condition as a body at any given time. 
The following description must therefore be taken as reflecting 
their duties and disabilities only in the most general way. 

The first and most characteristic feature of the condition of 
the serfs was that they were affixed to the soil. They could not 
of their own will leave the estate or manor to which they be¬ 
longed; nor, on the other hand, could their lord deprive them of 
their holdings and set them adrift. When the land changed 
masters they passed with it, just like a " rooted tree or stone 
earth-bound.” 

Each serf had allotted him by his lord a cottage and a number of 
acres of land,— thirty acres formed a normal holding,—consist¬ 
ing of numerous narrow strips scattered about the great open 
fields of the manor. For these he paid a rent, usually, during the 
earlier feudal times, in kind and in personal services. The personal 
services included a certain number of days’ work, usually two or 

1 There were some free peasants and a large number of free artisans and traders, 
inhabitants of the towns. The number of actual slaves was small. They had almost all 
disappeared before the end of the tenth century, either having been emancipated or 
having been lifted into the lowest order of serfs, which was an advance toward freedom. 
At the time of the great Domesday survey (sect. 433) there were, according to this 
record, only about 25,000 slaves in England. 


290 


FEUDALISM AND CHIVALRY 


[§ 41 S 


three days each week, on the demesne, that is, the land which 
the lord had kept in his own hands as a sort of home farm. He 
must furthermore grind his grain at his lord’s mill, press his 
grapes at his wine press, bake his bread at his oven, often paying 
for these services an unreasonable toll. 

After the serf had rendered to the lord all the rent in kind he 
owed for his cottage and bit of ground, the remainder of the 
produce from his fields was, in accordance with custom if not 
always with law, his own. Generally the share was only just 
sufficient to keep the wolf of hunger from his door. 

What we have now said will convey some idea of the nature of 
the relations that existed between the lord and his serf, and will 
indicate how servile and burdensome was the tenure by which the 
serf held his cottage and bit of ground. How the serf gradually 
freed himself from the heavy yoke of his servitude and became a 
freeman will appear as we advance in our narrative. 

418. Development of the Feudal System. The development of 
feudalism as a military system was hastened by the disturbed state 
of society everywhere during the greater part of the ninth and the 
tenth century ; for after the death of Charlemagne and the parti¬ 
tion of his empire, it appeared as though the world were again 
falling back into chaos. The bonds of society seemed entirely 
broken. 

To internal disorders were added the invasions of the outside 
barbarians; for, no longer held in restraint by the strong arm of 
the great Charles, they had now begun their raids anew. From 
the north came the Scandinavian pirates to harry the shores of 
Germany, Gaul, and Britain. The terror which these pagan sea 
rovers inspired is commemorated by the supplication of the litany 
of those days: "From the fury of the Northmen, good Lord, 
deliver us.” From the east came the terrible Hungarians, and by 
the way of the sea on the south came an equally dreaded foe, the 
Saracens, who had gained a foothold in Spain and Sicily. 

It was this anarchical state of things which caused all classes to 
hasten to enter the feudal system in order to secure the protection 
which it alone could afford. Kings, princes, and wealthy persons 



MAP OF 

IIITCHIN MANOR , 1 
ENGLAND 
(About 1816) 






t'' ■■ 






il.:- 






■ ■: V-:-- ■ -A’#^ ;,v 




pEaf 






■ .. ; 






*. «S*-- ' *jfSSm!3£*it 


■ ■ 


®3B 


' yfi&&«4U&£ 


Photograph of an Open Field in Hitchin Manor 

Showing the grassy balks, or unplowed furrows, which take the place of hedges 
and divide the acre and half-acre strips of the great open field 

1 This map is based on charts in Seebohm’s The English Village Community, and 
illustrates the open-field system of cultivation of the mediaeval manor. The thirty scattered 
strips colored red represent the normal holding of a villain ( villanns ); the strips colored 
blue, comprising about one third of the land of the manor, show the way in which the 
demesne of the lord was often made up of numerous tracts^scattered about the open fields 
instead of forming a continuous tract around the manor house ; the areas colored green 
represent the meadows and common pasture lands. 








































§ 419 ] 


CASTLES OF THE NOBLES 


291 


who had large landed possessions which they had never parceled 
out as fiefs were now led to do so, that their estates might be held 
by tenants bound to protect them by all the sacred obligations of 
homage and fealty. Thus sovereigns and princes became suzerains 
and feudal lords. Again, the smaller proprietors often voluntarily 
surrendered their little holdings into the hands of some neighbor¬ 
ing lord, and then received them back again from him as fiefs, that 
they might claim protection as vassals. They deemed this better 
than being robbed of their property altogether. 

Moreover, for like reasons and in like manner, churches, mon¬ 
asteries, and cities became members of the feudal system. They 
granted out their vast possessions as fiefs, and thus became suze¬ 
rains and lords. Bishops and abbots became the heads of great 
bands of retainers, and often themselves led military expeditions 
like temporal chiefs. On the other hand, these same monasteries 
and towns frequently placed themselves under the protection 
of some powerful lord, and thus came in vassalage to him. Some¬ 
times the bishops and the heads of religious houses, instead of 
paying military service, bound themselves to say a certain number 
of Masses for the lord or his family. 

In this way were Church and State, all classes of society from 
the wealthiest suzerain to the humblest vassal, bound together by 
feudal ties. Everything was impressed with the stamp of feudalism. 

419. Castles of the Nobles. The lawless and violent character 

s 

of the times during which feudalism prevailed is well shown by 
the nature of the residences which the great nobles built for 
themselves. These were strong stone fortresses, often perched upon 
some rocky eminence and defended by moats and towers. France, 
Germany, Italy, northern Spain, England, and Scotland, in which 
countries the feudal system became most thoroughly developed, 
fairly bristled with these fortified residences of the nobility. 
Strong walls were the only protection against the universal violence 
of the age. 

One of the most striking and picturesque features of the land¬ 
scape of many regions in Europe today is the ivy-mantled towers 
and walls of these feudal castles, now falling into ruins. 


292 


FEUDALISM AND CHIVALRY 


[§ 420 


420. Causes of the Decay of Feudalism. Chief among the 
various causes which undermined and at length overthrew feu¬ 
dalism were the hostility of the kings to the system, the Crusades, 
the growth of the cities, and the introduction of firearms in the 
art of war. 

The kings opposed the system and sought to break it down, 
because it left them only the semblance of power. We shall see 



later how the kings came again into their own (Chapter LI). The 
Crusades, or Holy Wars, that agitated all Europe during the 
twelfth and thirteenth centuries did much to weaken the power of 
the nobles; for in order to raise money for their expeditions they 
frequently sold or mortgaged their estates, and in this way power 
and influence passed into the hands of the kings or the wealthy 
merchants of the cities. Many of the great nobles also perished 
in battle with the infidels, and their lands escheated to their 
suzerain, whose domains were thus augmented. 

The growth of the towns also tended to the same end. As 
they increased in wealth and influence, they became able to resist 
the exactions and tyranny of the lord in whose fief they happened 
to be, and eventually were able to secede, as it were, from his 
authority, and to make of themselves little republics. 







§ 42a] CHIEF DEFECT OF THE FEUDAL SYSTEM 293 

Again, improvements and changes in the mode of warfare, 
especially those resulting from the use of gunpowder, hastened 
the downfall of feudalism by rendering the yeoman foot soldier 
equal to the armor-clad knight. "It made all men of the same 
height,” as Carlyle puts it. 

But it is to be carefully noted that, though feudalism as a 
system of government disappeared, speaking broadly, with the 
Middle Ages, it still continued to exist as a social organization. 
The nobles lost their power and authority as petty sovereigns, but 
retained their titles, their privileges, their social distinction, and, 
in many cases, their vast landed estates. 

421. A Chief Defect of the Feudal System. A great drawback 
from the advantages of feudalism was that it rendered impossible 
the formation of strong national governments. Every country was 
divided and subdivided into a vast number of practically inde¬ 
pendent principalities. Thus, in the tenth century France was 
partitioned among about a hundred and fifty overlords, all exer¬ 
cising equal and coordinate powers of sovereignty. The enormous 
estates of these great lords were again subdivided into about 
seventy thousand smaller fiefs. 

In theory, as we have seen, the holders of these petty estates 
were bound to serve and obey their overlords, and these great 
nobles were in turn the sworn vassals of the French king. But 
many of these lords were richer and stronger than the king him¬ 
self, and if they chose to cast off their allegiance to him, he found 
it impossible to reduce them to obedience. The king’s time was 
chiefly occupied in ineffectual efforts to reduce his haughty and 
refractory nobles to proper submission, and in intervening feebly 
to compose their endless quarrels with one another. It is easy to 
conceive the anarchy produced by this state of things. 

422. The Good Results of Feudalism. The most conspicuous 
service that feudalism rendered European civilization was the pro¬ 
tection which it gave to society after the break-up of the empire 
of Charles the Great. "It was the mailed feudal horseman and 
the impregnable walls of the feudal castle that foiled the attacks 
of the Danes, the Saracens, and the Hungarians” (Oman). 


294 


FEUDALISM AND CHIVALRY 


[§ 423 


Feudalism rendered another noteworthy service to society in 
fostering among its privileged members self-reliance and love of 
personal independence. Turbulent, violent, and refractory as was 
the feudal aristocracy of Europe, it performed the grand service 
of keeping alive during the later mediaeval period the spirit of 
liberty. The feudal lords would not allow themselves to be dealt 
with arrogantly by their king; they stood on their rights as free¬ 
men. Hence royalty was prevented from becoming as despotic 
as would otherwise have been the case. Thus, in England, for 
instance, the feudal lords held such tyrannical rulers as King John 
in check (sect. 487 ), until such time as the yeoman and the 
burgher were bold enough and strong enough alone to stand against 
and to baffle their despotically inclined sovereigns. 

Another of the good effects of feudalism was the impulse it 
gave to certain forms of polite literature. Just as learning and 
philosophy were fostered by the seclusion of the cloister, so were 
poetry and romance fostered by the open and joyous hospitalities 
of the baronial hall. The castle door was always open to the 
wandering singer and story-teller, and it was amidst the scenes 
of festivity within that the ballads and romances of mediaeval 
minstrelsy and literature had their birth. 

Still another service which feudalism rendered to civilization 
was the development within the baronial castle of those ideas 
and sentiments—among others a nice sense of honor and an 
exalted consideration for woman—which found their noblest 
expression in chivalry, of which institution and its good effects 
upon the social life of Europe we shall now proceed to speak. 

II. CHIVALRY 

423. Chivalry defined; Origin of the Institution. Chivalry 
has been aptly defined as the "Flower of Feudalism.” It was a 
military institution or order, the members of which, called knights, 
were pledged to the protection of the Church and to the defense 
of the weak and the oppressed. It grew out of feudalism in the 
following way: It became the rule that all fief holders must 


§ 424] 


THE CEREMONY OF KNIGHTING 


295 


render military service on horseback. Fighting on horseback 
gradually became the normal mode and for centuries remained so. 
Gradually this feudal warrior caste underwent a transformation. 
It became in part independent of the feudal system, in so far as 
that had to do with the land, so that any person, if qualified by 
birth and properly initiated, might be a member of the order 
without being the holder of a fief. A great part of the later 
knights were portionless sons of the nobility. 

424. Training of the Knight. When chivalry had once be¬ 
come established, all the sons of the nobility, save such as were 
to enter the holy orders of the Church, were set apart and dis¬ 
ciplined for its service. The sons of the poorer nobles were 
usually placed in the family of some lord of renown, where they 
were trained in the duties and exercises of knighthood. 

This education began at the early age of seven, the youth bear¬ 
ing the name of page or varlet until he attained the age of four¬ 
teen, when he acquired the title of squire, or esquire. The lord 
and his knights trained the boys in manly and martial duties, 
while the ladies of the castle instructed them in the duties of 
religion and in all knightly etiquette. The duties of the page were 
usually confined to the castle, though sometimes he accompanied 
his lord to the field. The esquire always attended in battle the 
knight to whom he was attached, carrying his arms and, if need 
be, engaging in the fight. 

425. The Ceremony of Knighting. At the age of twenty-one 
the squire became a knight, being then introduced to the order 
of knighthood by a peculiar and impressive service. After a long 
fast and vigil the candidate listened to a lengthy sermon on his 
duties as a knight. Then kneeling, as in the feudal ceremony of 
homage, before the lord conducting the services, he vowed to 
defend religion and the ladies, to succor the distressed, and ever 
to be faithful to his companion knights. His arms were now given 
to him, and his sword was girded on, when the lord, striking him 
with the flat of his sword on the shoulders, said, "In the name of 
God, of St. Michael, and of St. George, I dub thee knight; be 
brave, bold, and loyal.” 


296 


FEUDALISM AND CHIVALRY 


[§426 


426. The Tournament. The tournament was the favorite 
amusement of the age of chivalry. It was a mimic battle between 
two companies of knights, armed usually with pointless swords or 
blunted lances. In the later period of chivalry it assumed the 
character of a gay and elegant festival. The prince or baron giv¬ 
ing the tournament made wide proclamation of the event, brave 
and distinguished knights being invited even from distant lands 



Fig. 85. A Tilting Match between Two Knights 


to grace the occasion with their presence and an exhibition of 
their skill and prowess. The lists—a level space marked off 
by a rope or railing and surrounded with galleries for spectators— 
were made gay with banners and tapestries and heraldic emblems. 

A ictory was accorded to him who unhorsed his antagonist or 
broke in a proper manner the greatest number of lances. The 
reward of the victor was a wreath of flowers, armor, greyhounds, 
or steeds decked with knightly trappings, and, more esteemed than 
all else, the praises and favor of his lady-love. 

427. Decline of Chivalry. The fifteenth century was the eve¬ 
ning of chivalry. The decline of the system resulted from the 
operation of the same causes that effected the overthrow of 













































§ 428] 


THE GOOD IN CHIVALRY 


297 


feudalism. The changes in the mode of warfare which helped to 
do away with the feudal baron and his mail-clad retainers likewise 
tended to destroy knight-errantry. And then, as civilization ad¬ 
vanced, new feelings and sentiments began to claim the attention 
and to work upon the imagination of men. Governments, too, 
became more regular, and the increased order and security of 
society rendered less needful the services of the gallant knight in 
behalf of the weak and the oppressed. 

428. The Good in Chivalry. Chivalry contributed powerfully 
to lift that sentiment of respect for the gentler sex which charac¬ 
terized all the northern nations, into that tender veneration of 
woman which forms the distinguishing characteristic of the present 

age, and makes it differ from all preceding phases of civilization. 

Again, chivalry did much to create that ideal of character— 

an ideal distinguished by the virtues of courtesy, gentleness, 
humanity, loyalty, magnanimity, and fidelity to the plighted 
word—which we rightly think to surpass any ever formed 
under the influences of antiquity. Just as Christianity gave to 
the world an ideal of manhood which it was to strive to realize, 
so did chivalry hold up an ideal to which men were to conform 
their lives. Men, indeed, have never perfectly realized either 
the ideal of Christianity or that of chivalry; but the influence 
which these two ideals have had in shaping and giving character 
to the lives of men cannot be overestimated. Together, through 
the enthusiasm and effort awakened for their realization, they 
have produced a new type of manhood, which we indicate by the 
phrase "a knightly and Christian character.” 

References. Emerton, E., Introduction to the Middle Ages, chap, xv; and 
Alediceval Europe, chap, xiv and the first part of chap. xv. Adams, G. B., Civi¬ 
lization during the Middle Ages, chap. ix. Seignobos, C., The Feudal Regime. 
Seebohm, F., The English Village Community. Cheyney, E. P., An Introduc¬ 
tion to the Industrial and Social Histoiy of England, chap, ii, " Rural Life and 
Organization.” Munro, D. C., and Sellery, G. C., Mediceval Civilization , 

pp. 159-211 and 240-247. James, G. P. R History of Chivahy. Cornish, F. W., 
Chivalry. 



CHAPTER XLIV 

THE NORMAN CONQUEST OF ENGLAND 1 

429. Introductory. The history of the Normans—the name, 
it will be recalled, of the transformed Scandinavians who settled 
in northern Gaul (sect. 411 )—is simply a continuation of the 
story of the Northmen; and nothing could better illustrate the 
difference between the period we have left behind and the one 
upon which we have entered, nothing could more strikingly 
exhibit the gradual transformation that has crept over the face 
and spirit of European society, than the transformation which 
time and favoring associations have wrought in these men. When 
first we met them in the ninth century they were pagans; now 
they are Christians. Then they were rough, wild, merciless cor¬ 
sairs; now they are become the most cultured, polished, and 
chivalrous people in Europe. But the restless, daring spirit that 
drove the Norse sea-kings forth upon the waves in quest of 
adventure and booty still stirs in the breasts of their descendants. 

4 

Note. The picture at the head of this page shows the landing in England of 
William of Normandy. It is from the celebrated Bayeux Tapestry. This is a strip of 
linen canvas over two hundred feet long and nineteen inches wide, upon which are 
embroidered in colors seventy-two pictures, representing episodes in the Norman Con¬ 
quest of England. The work was executed not long after the events it depicts, and is- 
named from the cathedral in France where it is kept. Its importance consists in the 
information it conveys respecting the life and manners, and the costumes, arms, and 
armor of the times. 

1 Not long before the Normans conquered England, they succeeded in gaining a 
foothold in the south of Italy, where they established a feudal state, which ultimately 
included the island of Sicily. The fourth head of the commonwealth was the celebrated 
Robert Guiscard (d. 1085), who spread the renown of the Norman name throughout the 
Mediterranean lands. This Norman state, converted finally into a kingdom, lasted until 
late in the twelfth century (1194). 


29S 


































§ 430] EVENTS LEADING UP TO THE CONQUEST 299 

As has been said, they were simply changed from heathen 
Vikings, delighting in the wild life of sea rover and pirate, into 
Christian knights, eager for pilgrimages and crusades. 

The most important of the enterprises of the Normans, and 
one followed by consequences of the greatest magnitude not only 
to the conquered people but indirectly to the world, was their 
conquest of England. 

430. Events leading up to the Conquest. In the year 1066 
Edward the Confessor, in whose person, it will be recalled, the old 
English line was restored after the Danish usurpation (sect. 410 ), 
died, and immediately the Witan , 1 in accordance with the dying 
wish of the king, chose Harold, Earl of Wessex, the best and 
strongest man in all England, to be his successor. 

When the news of the action of the Witan and of Harold’s 
acceptance of the English crown was carried across the Chan¬ 
nel to William, Duke of Normandy, he was greatly vexed. He 
declared that Edward, who was his cousin, had during his life¬ 
time promised the throne to him, and that Harold had assented 
to this, and by solemn oath engaged to sustain him. He now 
demanded of Harold that he surrender to him the usurped throne, 
threatening the immediate invasion of the island in case he 
refused. King Harold answered the demand by collecting an 
army for the defense of his dominions. Duke William now made 
ready for a descent upon the English coast. 

431. The Battle of Hastings ( 1066 ). The Norman army of 
Invasion landed in the south of England, at the port of Hastings, 
which place gave name to the battle that almost immediately 
followed,— the battle that was to determine the fate of England. 
The battle once joined, the conflict was long and terrific. The day 
finally went against the English. Harold fell, pierced through 
the eye by an arrow; and William was master of the field. He 
now marched upon London, and at Westminster, on Christmas 
Day, 1066 , was crowned king of England. 


1 The Witan, or Witenagemot, which means the " Meeting of the Wise Men,” was 
the common council of the realm. The House of Lords of the present Parliament is a 
survival of this early national assembly. 


300 THE NORMAN CONQUEST OF ENGLAND [§ 432 

432. The Distribution of the Land and the Gemot of Salis¬ 
bury. Almost the first act of William after he had established his 
power in England was to fulfill his promise to the nobles who had 
aided him in his enterprise, by distributing among them the for¬ 
feited estates of the English who had fought against him at Has¬ 
tings. Profiting by the lesson taught by the wretched condition of 
France, which country was kept in a state of constant turmoil by a 
host of feudal lords, many of whom were almost or quite as power¬ 
ful as the king himself, William took care that in the distribution 
no feudatory should receive an entire shire, save in two or three 
exceptional cases. To the great lord to whom he must needs give a 
large fief, he granted not a continuous tract of land but several 
estates or manors scattered in different parts of the country, in 
order that there might be no dangerous concentration of property 
or power in the hands of the vassal. 

Another equally important limitation of the power of the vassal 
was effected by William through his requiring all fief holders, great 
and small, to take an oath of fealty directly to him as overlord. 
This was a great innovation upon feudal custom, for the rule was 
that the vassal should swear fealty to his own immediate lord only, 
and in war follow his banner even against his own king. The 
oath that William exacted from every fief holder made the alle¬ 
giance which he owed to his king superior to that which he owed 
to his own immediate lord. At the great gemot, or military 
assembly, of Salisbury in the year 1086 "all the landholders of 
substance in England” swore to William this solemn oath of 
superior fealty and allegiance. 

William also denied to his feudatories the right of coining 
money and making laws; and by other wise restrictions upon 
their power he saved England from those endless contentions and 
petty wars that were distracting almost every other country of 
Europe. 

433. Domesday Book. One of the most celebrated acts of 
the Conqueror was the making of Domesday Book. This famous 
book contained a description and valuation of all the lands of 
England,—excepting those of some counties, mostly in the north, 


§ 434] 


THE CURFEW 


301 


that were either unconquered or unsettled; an enumeration of the 
cattle and sheep; and statements of the income of every man. 
It was intended, in a word, to be a perfect survey and census of 
the entire kingdom. 

434. The Curfew. Among the regulations said to have been 
introduced into England by the Conqueror was one known as the 
Curfew. This law required that, upon the ringing of the church 
bell at nightfall, 
every person should 
be at home, and 
that the fires should 
be buried 1 and the 
lights extinguished. 

Two reasons have 
been assigned for 
this ordinance: the 
one supposes that 
its object was to 
prevent thepeople’s 
assembling by night 
to plan or execute 
treasonable under¬ 
takings ; the other 
represents it simply as a safeguard against fire. The law was 
certainly in force in Normandy before the Conquest; indeed, it 
was a universal custom of police throughout the whole of mediaeval 
Europe. 

435. The Norman Successors of the Conqueror. For nearly 
three quarters of a century after the death of William the Con¬ 
queror, England was ruled by Norman kings. The latter part 
of this period was a troublous time. The succession to the 
crown coming into dispute, civil war broke out. The result of 
the contention was a decline in the royal power, and the ascend¬ 
ancy of the Norman barons, who for a time made England the 
scene .of the same feudal anarchy that prevailed at this period 



Fig. 86. Domesday Book. (From a facsimile 

edition published by royal command in 1862) 

\ 

There are two large volumes of the survey, one being a 
folio of 760 pages and the other a large octavo of 900 pages. 
The strong box shown in the cut is the chest in which the 
volumes were formerly kept 


1 Hence the term Curfew, from couvrir , "to cover,” and feu, "fire.” 
































302 THE NORMAN CONQUEST OF ENGLAND [§ 436 

upon the Continent. Finally, in 1154 , the Norman dynasty gave 
place to that of the Plantagenets. Under Henry II, the first king 
of the new house, and an energetic and strong ruler, the barons 
were again brought into proper subjection to the crown, and many 
castles which had been built without royal permission during the 
preceding anarchical period, and some of which at least were little 
better than robbers’ dens, were dismantled and demolished. 

436. Results of the Norman Conquest. The most important 
and noteworthy outcome of the Conquest was the establishment in 
England of a strong centralized government, which resulted largely 
from the modification of feudal rules and practices effected by the 
Conqueror. England now became a real kingdom,—what it had 
hardly been in more than semblance before. 

A second result of the Conquest was the founding of a new 
feudal aristocracy. The Saxon thane was displaced by the Nor¬ 
man baron. This not only introduced a new and more refined 
element into the social life of England, but it also changed the 
membership, the temper, and the name of the national assembly, 
the old English Wit an now becoming the Parliament of later times. 

A third result of the Conquest was the drawing of England into 
closer relations with the countries of Continental Europe. The 
Norman conquest of the island was in this respect like the Roman. 
Through the many Continental relations—political, social, com¬ 
mercial, and ecclesiastical — now established or made more inti¬ 
mate, England’s advance in trade, in architecture, in her religious 
and intellectual life, was greatly promoted. And in this connec¬ 
tion must be borne in mind particularly the close political and 
feudal relations into which England was brought with France, for 
out of these grew the jealousies and rivalries which led to the 
long Hundred Years’ War between the two countries. 

References. Haskins, C. II., The Normans in European Histo7y. Free¬ 
man, E. A., The A T orman Conquest (a little book which contains "the same 
tale told afresh,” that fills the six volumes of the author’s earlier great work on 
the Conquest). Johnson, A. H., The Normans in Europe. Stenton, F. M., 
William the Conqueror. Creasy, E. S., The Decisive Battles of the World , 
chap. vii. 


CHAPTER XLV 

THE PAPACY AND THE EMPIRE 

437. The Two World Powers. "The two great ideas,” says 
James Bryce, "which expiring antiquity bequeathed to the ages 
that followed were those of a world monarchy and a world reli¬ 
gion.” We have seen how out of one of these ideas, under the 
favoring circumstances of the earlier mediaeval centuries, was 
developed the Empire, and out of the other the Papacy. The 
history of these two powers, of their relations to the rulers and 
the peoples of Europe, and of their struggle with each other for 
supremacy, makes up a large part of the history of the mediaeval 
centuries. It is of these important matters that we must now 
try to get some sort of understanding. 

What we have learned about the ideas and principles of feu¬ 
dalism will aid us greatly in our study, for, as we shall see, the 
whole long struggle between these two world powers was deeply 
marked by feudal conceptions and practices. 

438. The Three Theories respecting the Relations of Pope 
and Emperor. After the revival of the Empire in the West and 
the rise of the Papacy, there gradually grew up three different 
theories in regard to the divinely established relation of the Pope 
and the Emperor. The first was that each was independently com¬ 
missioned by God, the Pope to rule the spirits of- men, the Emperor 
to rule their bodies. Each reigning thus by original divine right, 
neither is set above the other, but both are to cooperate and to help 
each other. The special duty of the temporal power is to maintain 
order in the world and to be the protector of the Church. 

The second theory, the one held by the imperial party, was that 
the Emperor was superior to the Pope in secular affairs. Argu¬ 
ments from Scripture and from the transactions of history were 
not wanting to support this view. Thus Christ’s payment of tribute 

303 


THE PAPACY AND THE EMPIRE 


[§438 


/ 


304 

money was cited as proof that he regarded the temporal power 
as superior to the spiritual. And then, did he not say, Render 
unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s”? Further, the gift 
of certain lands by Charlemagne and an earlier Irankish prince 

to the Roman See (sect. 382 ) made the 
popes, it was maintained, the vassals 
of the emperors. 

The third theory, the one held by the 
papal party, maintained that the or¬ 
dained relation of the two powers was 
the subordination of the temporal to 
the spiritual authority, even in civil 
affairs. This view was maintained by 
such texts of Scripture as these: " But 
he that is spiritual judgeth all things, 
yet he himself is judged of no man” 

" See, I have this day set thee over the 
nations and over the kingdoms, to root 
out, and to pull down, and to destroy, 
and to throw down, to build, and to 
plant .” 2 The conception was further 
illustrated by such comparisons as the 
following,— for in mediaeval times par¬ 
able and metaphor often took the place 
of argument: As God has set in the 
heavens twx) lights, the sun and the 
moon, so has he established on earth 
two powers, the spiritual and the tem¬ 
poral ; but as the moon is inferior to 
the sun and receives its light from it, so is the Emperor inferior 
to the Pope and receives all power from him. 

The first theory was the impractical dream of lofty souls who 
forgot that men are human. Christendom was virtually divided 
into two hostile camps the members of which were respectively 
supporters of the imperial and the papal theory. 



Fig. 87. The Spiritual 
and the Temporal 
Power. (From a ninth- 
century mosaic in the Lat- 
eran at Rome; after Jaeger, 
IVeltgesch ich te) 

St. Peter gives to Pope Leo 111 
the stola and to Charlemagne 
the banner of Rome as symbols 
of the spiritual and temporal 
powers. The portrait of Charle¬ 
magne here shown is with little 
doubt the oldest in existence 


1 1 Corinthians ii. 15. 


2 Jeremiah i. 10. 
















§ 439] POPE GREGORY VII AND HIS REFORMS 305 

439 . Pope Gregory VII (1073-1085) and his Reforms. One 
of the most eminent supporters of the papal claims was Pope 
Gregory VII, better known by his earlier name of Hildebrand, 
the most noteworthy character, after Charlemagne, that the Mid¬ 
dle Ages produced. When Gregory came to the papal throne one 
grave danger threatening the Church was the marriage of the 
clergy. At this time a great part of the minor clergy were married. 
Gregory resolved to bring all the clergy to the strict observance of 
celibate vows. By thus separating the priests from the attachments 
of home, and lifting from them all family burdens and cares, he 
aimed to render their consecration to the duties of their offices more 
whole-souled and their dependence upon the Church more com¬ 
plete. Though obstinately opposed by a large section of the clergy, 
this reform was finally effected,—but not in Gregory’s lifetime,— 
so that celibacy became as binding upon the priest as upon the monk. 

Gregory’s second reform, the correction of simony, 1 had for 
one of its objects the freeing of the lands and offices of the Church 
from the control of lay lords and princes, and the bringing of them 
more completely under the direction of the Roman pontiff. The 
evil of simony had grown up in the Church chiefly in the follow¬ 
ing way. As the feudal system took possession of European 
society, the Church, like individuals and cities, assumed feudal 
relations; abbots and bishops, as the heads of monasteries and 
churches, for the sake of protection, became the vassals of power¬ 
ful barons or princes. When once a prelate had promised fealty 
for his estates or temporalities, as they were called, these became 
henceforth a permanent fief of the overlord and subject to all the 
incidents of the feudal tenure. When a vacancy occurred the 
lord assumed the right to fill it, just as in case of the escheat of a 
lay fief. 2 In this way the temporal rulers throughout Europe had 
come to exercise the right of nominating or confirming the election 
of almost all the great prelates of the Church. 

1 By simony is meant the purchase of an office in the Church, the name of the offense 
coming from Simon Magus, who offered Peter money for the power to confer the Holy 
Spirit. See Acts viii. 9-24. 

2 The clergy and monks still retained the nominal right of election, but too fre¬ 
quently an election by them was a mere matter of form. For a typical case see sect. 459. 


306 THE PAPACY AND THE EMPIRE [§440 

Now these lay princes who had the patronage of these Church 
offices and lands handled them just as they did their lay fiefs. 
They required the person nominated to an abbacy or to a bishop¬ 
ric to pay for the appointment and investiture a sum proportioned 
to the income from the office. This was in strict accord with the 
feudal rule which allowed the lord to demand from the vassal, 

upon his investiture with a fief, a 
sum of money called a relief (sect. 
416 ). This rule, thus applied to 
Church lands and offices, was, it 
is easy to see, the cause of great 
evil and corruption. The eccle¬ 
siastical vacancies were virtually 
sold to the highest bidder, and at 
times the most unsuitable persons 
became bishops and abbots. 

To remedy the evil, Gregory 
issued decrees forbidding anyone 
of the clergy to receive the investi¬ 
ture of a bishopric or abbey or 
church from the hands of a tem¬ 
poral prince or lord. Anyone who 
should dare to disobey these de¬ 
crees was threatened with the 
penalties of the Church. 

440. Excommunications and Interdicts. The chief instru¬ 
ments relied upon by Gregory for enforcing his decrees were the 
spiritual weapons of the Church,— excommunication and interdict. 
The first was directed against individuals. The person excom¬ 
municated was cut off practically from all relations with his 
fellow-men and became an outcast. If a king, his subjects were 
released from their oath of allegiance. Anyone providing the 
excommunicate with food or shelter incurred the censure of the 
Church. Living, the excommunicated person was to be shunned 
as though tainted with an infectious disease; and dead, he was to 
be refused the ordinary rites of burial. 



Fig. 88. Investiture of a 
Bishop by a King through 
the Giving of the Crosier, 
or Pastoral Staff. (From a 
manuscript of the tenth century) 




















§ 441] 


THE INVESTITURE CONTEST 


307 


The interdict was directed against a city, province, or kingdom. 
Throughout the region under this ban the churches were closed; 
no bell could be rung, no marriage celebrated, no burial ceremony 
performed. The sacraments of baptism and extreme unction alone 
could be administered. 

It is difficult for us in modern days to realize the effect of 
these bans during these early ages. They rarely failed in bring¬ 
ing the most contumacious offender to a speedy and abject 
confession, or in effecting his undoing. This will appear in the 
following paragraph. 

441 . The Investiture Contest; Emperor Henry IV’s Humili¬ 
ation at Canossa (1077). It was in Germany that Gregory ex¬ 
perienced the most formidable opposition to his reform measures. 
The Emperor-elect, King Henry IV ( 1056 - 1106 ), who had been 
threatened by Gregory with excommunication and deposition, 
gathering in council such of the prelates of the Empire as would 
answer his call, even dared to bid him descend from the papal 
throne. Gregory in turn gathered a council at Rome and deposed 
and excommunicated the Emperor. 

Henry’s excommunication encouraged a revolt on the part of 
some of his discontented subjects. He was shunned as a man 
accursed by Heaven. His authority seemed to have slipped en¬ 
tirely out of his hands, and his kingdom was on the point of going 
to pieces. In this wretched state of his affairs there was but one 
thing for him to do,—to go to Gregory and humbly sue for pardon 
and reinstatement in the favor of the Church. 

Henry sought Gregory among the Apennines, at Canossa, a 
stronghold of the celebrated Countess Matilda of Tuscany. But 
Gregory refused to admit him to his presence. It was winter, and 
on three successive days the king, clothed in sackcloth, stood with 
bare feet in the snow of the courtyard of 'the castle, waiting for 
permission to kneel at the feet of the pontiff and to receive for¬ 
giveness. On the fourth day the king was admitted to the presence 
of Gregory and the sentence of excommunication was removed. 

Henry afterwards avenged his humiliation. He raised an army, 
descended upon Rome, and drove Gregory into exile at Salerno, 


3°8 


THE PAPACY AND THE EMPIRE 


[§ 442 


where he died with these words on his lips: "I have loved justice 
and hated iniquity, and therefore I die an exile.” 

But the quarrel did not end here. It was taken up by the suc¬ 
cessors of Gregory, and Henry was again excommunicated. After 
maintaining a long struggle with the power of the Church and 
with his own sons, who were incited to rebel against him, he 
finally died broken-hearted. 

442. Concordat of Worms ( 1122 ). Henry’s successors main¬ 
tained the quarrel with the popes. The outcome of the matter, 
after many years of bitter contention, was the celebrated Con¬ 
cordat of Worms. It was agreed that all bishops and abbots of 
the Empire, after free election by those having this right, should 
receive the ring and staff, the symbols of their spiritual jurisdic¬ 
tion, from the Pope, but that the Emperor should exercise the 
right of investiture by the touch of a scepter, the emblem of tem¬ 
poral rights and authority. This was a recognition by both parties 
that all spiritual authority emanates from the Church and all 
temporal authority from the State. It was a compromise,—"a 
rendering unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and unto God 
the things that are God’s.” 

We must here drop the story of the contentions of Pope and 
Emperor in order to watch the peoples of Europe as at the time 
we have now reached they undertake with surprising unanimity 
and enthusiasm the most remarkable enterprises in which they 
were ever engaged,—the Crusades, or Holy Wars. It was the 
prestige which the Papacy had gained in its contest with the Em¬ 
pire which enabled the popes to exert such an influence in setting 
the Crusades in motion and in directing them ; while at the same 
time it was these enterprises which, reacting upon the Papacy, 
greatly aided the popes in realizing Gregory’s ideal of making the 
papal authority supreme throughout Western Christendom. 

References. Bryce, J., The Holy Roman Empire (this little work has become 
a classic). Adams, G. B., Civilization during the Pliddle Ages, chap. x. Emer¬ 
son, E., Medueval Europe , chaps, vii and viii. Alzog, J., Universal Church 
History , vol. ii, pp. 253-336, 481-510. Tout, T. F., The Empire and the Papacy. 
\ incent, M. R., The Age of Hildebrand (the earlier chapters). Stephens, 
W. R. W., Hildebrand and his Times. 


CHAPTER XLVI 


THE CRUSADES 
(1096-1273) 

443. The Crusades defined. The Crusades were great military 
expeditions carried on intermittently for two centuries by the 
Christian peoples of Europe, with the aim of rescuing from the 
hands of the Mohammedans the holy places of Palestine and 
maintaining in the East a Latin kingdom. Historians usually 
enumerate eight of these expeditions as worthy of special narra¬ 
tion. But besides these there were a children’s crusade and several 
other expeditions, which, being insignificant in numbers or results, 
are not usually enumerated, as well as several enterprises in 
Europe itself which partook of the nature of crusades. 

444. Causes of the Crusades. Among the early Christians it 
was thought a pious and meritorious act to undertake a journey 
to some sacred place. Especially was it thought that a pilgrimage 
to the land whose soil had been pressed by the feet of the Saviour 
of the world, to the Holy City that had witnessed his martyrdom, 
w r as a peculiarly pious undertaking, and one which secured for 
the pilgrim the special favor and blessing of Heaven. 

The Saracen caliphs, for the four centuries and more that they 
held possession of Palestine, pursued usually an enlightened policy 
toward the pilgrims, even encouraging pilgrimages as a source of 
revenue. But in the eleventh century the Seljuk Turks, a promi¬ 
nent Tatar tribe, zealous proselytes of Islam, wrested Syria from 
the tolerant Saracen caliphs. The Christians were not long in 
realizing that power had fallen into new hands. Pilgrims were ‘ 
insulted and persecuted in every way. The churches in Jerusalem 
were, in some cases, destroyed or turned into stables. 

Now if it were a meritorious thing to make a pilgrimage to the 
Holy Sepulcher, much more would it be a pious act to rescue the 

309 


3 io 


THE CRUSADES 


[§ 445 


sacred spot from the profanation of infidels. This was the con¬ 
viction that changed the pilgrim into a warrior,— this the senti¬ 
ment that for two centuries and more stirred the Christian world 
to its profoundest depths and cast the population of Europe in 
wave after wave upon Asia. 

Although this religious feeling was the principal cause of the 
Crusades, still there were other concurring causes which must not 
be overlooked. Among these was the restless, adventurous spirit 
of the Teutonic peoples of Europe, who had not yet outgrown their 
barbarian instincts. The feudal knights and lords, just now T ani¬ 
mated by the rising spirit of chivalry, were very ready to enlist 
in undertakings so in keeping with their martial feelings and 
their new vows of knighthood. 

445 . The First Crusade (1096-1099); Founding of the Latin 
Kingdom of Jerusalem., A chief immediate inciting cause of the 
First Crusade was a fervid appeal by Pope Urban II to the peoples 
of Europe to undertake the rescue of the Holy Sepulcher from 
the hands of the unbelievers. By edict the Pope granted to all 
who should enlist from right motives "remission of all canonical 
penalties,” and promised to the truly penitent, in case they should 
die on the expedition, "the joy of life eternal.” Under such in¬ 
ducements princes and nobles, bishops and priests, monks and 
anchorites, saints and sinners, rich and poor, hastened to enroll 
themselves beneath the standard of the Cross. The expedition is 
said to have numbered about three hundred thousand men. 

The crusaders traversed Europe by different routes and re¬ 
assembled at Constantinople. Crossing the Bosphorus, they first 
captured Nicaea, the Turkish capital in Bithynia, and then set out 
across Asia Minor for Syria. The line of their dreary march was 
whitened with the bones of nearly one half their number. Arriv¬ 
ing at Antioch, the survivors captured that place, and then, after 
considerable delay, pushed on to Jerusalem, which was taken 
by storm. 

The government which the crusaders established for the city 
and country they had conquered was a model feudal state, called 
the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. At its head was placed Godfrey 



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EUROPE AND THE ORIEN r 

IN 1096 

Ontlie eve of th e Cr usades $ 

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§ 446 ] RELIGIOUS ORDERS OF KNIGHTFIOOD 


3ii 

of Bouillon, the most devoted of the crusader knights. The prince 
refused the title and vestments of royalty, declaring that he would 
never wear a crown of gold in the city where his Lord and Master 
had worn a crown of thorns. The only title he would accept was 
that of " Baron of the Holy Sepulcher.” 

Many of the crusaders, considering their vows to deliver the 
Holy City as now fufilled, soon set out on their return to their 
homes, some making their way back by sea and some by land. 

446. Origin of the Religious Orders of Knighthood. In the 
interval between the First and the Second Crusade, the two famed 
religious military orders known as the Hospitalers and the Tem¬ 
plars 1 were formed. A little later, during the Third Crusade, still 
another fraternity known as the Teutonic Knights was established. 
The objects of all the orders were the care of the sick and 
wounded crusaders, the entertainment of Christian pilgrims, the 
guarding of the holy places, and ceaseless battling for the Cross. 
These fraternities soon acquired a military fame that was spread 
throughout the Christian world. They were joined by many of the 
most illustrious knights of the West, and through the gifts of the 
pious acquired great wealth and became possessed of numerous 
estates and castles in Europe as well as in Asia. 

447. The Third Crusade 2 ( 1189 - 1192 ) ; Frederick Barbarossa, 
Saladin, and Richard the Lion-Hearted. The Third Cru¬ 
sade was caused by the capture of Jerusalem by Saladin, the 
renowned sultan of Egypt. This event occurred in the year 1187. 
The intelligence of the disaster caused the greatest consternation 
and grief throughout Christendom. Three of the great sovereigns 
of Europe, Frederick Barbarossa of Germany, Philip Augustus of 

1 The Hospitalers, or Knights of St. John, took their name from the fact that the 
organization was first formed among the monks of the Hospital of St. John at Jeru¬ 
salem : while the Templars, or Knights of the Temple, were so called because of the 
fact that one of the buildings of the brotherhood occupied the site of Solomon’s Temple. 
In the case of the Hospitalers it was monks who added to their ordinary monastic vows 
those of knighthood; in the case of the Templars it was knights who added to their 
military vows those of religion. Thus were united the seemingly incongruous ideals of 
the monk and the knight. 

2 The Second Crusade (1147-1149), which was preached by St. Bernard of Clairvaux, 
an eloquent monk, accomplished nothing of importance. 


3 12 


THE CRUSADES 


[§448 


France, and Richard I of England, took the crusaders’ vow, and set 
out, each at the head of a large army, for the recovery of the 
Holy City. The English king, Richard, afterwards given the title 
of Cceur de Lion, the "Lion-Hearted,” in memory of his heroic 
exploits in Palestine, was the central figure among the Christian 
knights of this crusade. 

The Emperor Frederick, essaying with his army the overland 
route, was drowned in a swollen stream in Asia Minor, and most 
of the survivors of his army, disheartened by the loss of their 
leader, soon returned to Germany. The English and French kings 
took the sea route and finally mustered their forces in Syria. Philip 
quarreled with Richard and retired from the war. For two years 
Richard contended in vain with Saladin, a knightly and generous 
antagonist according to the chroniclers, for possession of the tomb 
of Christ. He finally concluded with him a favorable truce and 
then set out for home; but while traversing Germany in disguise 
he was discovered and was arrested and imprisoned by order of 
Emperor Henry VI, who was his political enemy. Henry cast his 
prisoner into a dungeon and refused to release him without an 
enormous ransom, which was paid by the English people. 

448. The Fourth Crusade ( 1202 - 1204 ); Capture of Constanti¬ 
nople by the Latins. The city of Venice was the rendezvous of 
the Fourth Crusade. It was made up largely of unscrupulous ad¬ 
venturers and the marine forces of Venice. It was originally aimed 
at Egypt but, diverted from its first destination by sordid interests, 
struck Constantinople. 

The outcome of the crusade was the capture and sack of Con¬ 
stantinople and the setting up of a Latin prince, Baldwin of 
Flanders, as Emperor of the East. The Empire was now remodeled 
into a feudal state like the Kingdom of Jerusalem established by 
the knights of the First Crusade. Most of the Greek islands and 
certain of the shore lands of the old Empire were given to Venice 
as her share of the spoils. 

One lamentable consequence of the crusaders’ act was the 
weakening of the military strength of the capital. For a thousand 
years Constantinople had been the great bulwark of Western 


§ 449 ] 


THE CHILDREN’S CRUSADE 


313 


civilization against Asiatic barbarism. Its power of resistance was 
now broken, with momentous consequences for Western Christen¬ 
dom, as we shall learn later. 

The Latin Empire of Constantinople, as it was called, lasted 
only a little over half a century (1204-1261). The Greeks, at 
the end of this period, succeeded in regaining the throne, which 
they then held until the capture of Constantinople by the Turks 
in 1453 - 

449 . The Children’s Crusade (1212). During the interval* 
between the Fourth and the Fifth Crusade the religious enthusiasm 
that had so long agitated the men of Europe came to fill with 
unrest the children, resulting in what is known as the Children’s 
Crusade. 

The chief preacher of this crusade was a child about twelve 
years of age, a French peasant lad, who became persuaded that 
Jesus Christ had commanded him to lead a crusade of children to 
the rescue of the Holy Sepulcher. The children became wild with 
excitement and flocked in vast crowds to the places appointed for 
rendezvous. Nothing could restrain them or thwart their purpose. 
"Even bolts and bars,” says an old chronicler, "could not hold 
them.” The great majority of those who collected at the rallying 
places were boys under twelve years of age, but there were also 
many girls. 

The German children crossed the Alps and marched down the 
Italian shores looking for a miraculous pathway through the sea 
to Palestine. Beneath the toil and hardships of the journey a 
great part of the little crusaders died or fell out by the way. 
Those reaching Rome were kindly received by the Pope, who per¬ 
suaded them to give up their enterprise and return to their homes. 

The French children, numbering thirty thousand, according to 
the chroniclers, set out from the place of rendezvous for Mar¬ 
seilles. Arriving there, the children were bitterly disappointed that 
the sea did not open and give them passage to Palestine. The 
greater part, discouraged and disillusioned, now returned home; 
five or six thousand, however, accepting gladly the seemingly 
generous offer of two merchants of the city, who proposed to take 


3H 


THE CRUSADES 


[§ 450 


them to the Holy Land free of charge, crowded into seven small 
ships and sailed out of the port of Marseilles. But they were 
betrayed, and the most of them were sold as slaves in Alexandria 
and other Mohammedan slave markets. 

450 . The Minor Crusades; End of the Kingdom of Jeru¬ 
salem. The last four expeditions—the Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and 
Eighth — undertaken by the Christians of Europe against the 
infidels of the East may be conveniently grouped as the Minor 
Crusades. They were marked by a less genuine enthusiasm than 
that which characterized particularly the First Crusade. The 
flame of the Crusades had burned itself out, and the fate of the 
little Christian kingdom in Asia, isolated from Europe and sur¬ 
rounded on all sides by bitter enemies, became each day more 
and more apparent. Finally, the last of the places held by the 
Christians fell into the hands of the Moslems, and with this 
event the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem came to an end (1291). 
The second great combat between Mohammedanism and Chris¬ 
tianity was over, and "silence reigned along the shore that had 
so long resounded with the world’s debate” (Gibbon). 

451 . Crusades in Europe. Notwithstanding the strenuous 
and united efforts which the Christians of Europe put forth 
against the Mohammedans, they did not succeed in extending 
permanently the frontiers of Western civilization in the Orient. 

But in the southwest and the northeast of Europe it was dif¬ 
ferent. Here the crusading spirit rescued from Moslem and 
pagan large territories, and upon these regained or newly acquired 
lands established a number of little Christian principalities, which 
later grew into states, or came to form a portion of states, which 
were to play great parts in the history of the following centuries. 
The states whose beginnings are thus connected with the cru¬ 
sading age are Portugal, Spain, and Prussia. We will say just a 
single word respecting each of them. 

452 . Crusades against the Moors in the Iberian Peninsula. 
Just before the actual beginning of the Crusades against the 
Moslems of the East a band of Northern knights went to the help 
of the Christians against the Moslems in the west of the Iberian 


§ 453] CRUSADES BY THE TEUTONIC KNIGHTS 315 

peninsula. The issue of this chivalric enterprise was the formation 
of a little state, the nucleus of the later kingdom of Portugal. 

Then, during all the time that the Crusades proper were going 
on in the eastern Mediterranean, the free Christian mountaineers 
of northernmost Spain, who had already formed a number of small 
principalities (sect. 511), were engaged in almost one uninter¬ 
rupted crusade against the Moslem intruders. By the middle of 
the thirteenth century the Christians had crowded the Moors into 
a small region in the southern part of the peninsula. It was a 
group of the little Christian states whose territories were thus 
enlarged during the crusading period which finally coalesced to 
form the modern kingdom of Spain. 

453 . Crusades by the Teutonic Knights against the Pagan 
Slavs (1226-1283). At the time of the Crusades all the Baltic 
shore lands lying eastward of the Vistula, which today form a 
part of Prussia, were held by pagan Slavs. Early in the thirteenth 
century some knights of the Teutonic order transferred their 
crusading efforts to these Northern heathen lands. For the greater 
part of the century the knights carried on a desperate and almost 
continuous war of extermination against the pagans. The sur¬ 
rounding Slav population was either destroyed or subjected, and 
the whole land was gradually Germanized. Thus was laid the 
basis of a principality (the Duchy of Prussia) which later came 
to form an important part of modern Prussia. 

454 . Crusades against the Albigenses (1209-1229). During 
the crusading age holy wars were preached and waged against 
heretics as well as against infidels and pagans. 

In the south of France was a sect of Christians called Albigenses, 
who had departed so far from the orthodox faith that Pope 
Innocent III declared them to be "more wicked than Saracens.” 
He therefore, after a vain endeavor to turn them from their 
errors, issued a call for a crusade against them. The result of two 
crusades was the devastation of a great part of Languedoc, the 
beautiful country of the Albigenses, and the slaughter of the in¬ 
habitants. The Albigensian heresy was finally wholly extirpated 
by the tribunal of the Inquisition which was set up in the country. 


THE CRUSADES 


[§ 455 


3 j 6 


455 . Effects upon Civilization of the Crusades. The indirect 
results of the Crusades were many and far-reaching. Through 
them the towns gained many advantages at the expense of the 
crusading barons and princes. Ready money in the twelfth and 
thirteenth centuries was largely in the hands of the burgher class, 
and in return for the contributions and loans they made to their 
overlords and suzerains they received charters conferring special 

and valuable privileges. The Holy 
Wars further promoted the prosperity 
of the towns by giving a great impulse 
to commercial enterprise. Particularly 
was this true of the Italian cities. The 
Mediterranean was whitened with the 
sails of their transport ships, which 
were constantly plying between the 
various ports of Europe and the towns 
of the Syrian coast. 

The kings also gained much through 
the Crusades. Many of the nobles who 
set out on the expeditions never re¬ 
turned, and their estates, through fail¬ 
ure of heirs, escheated to the crown; 
while many more wasted their fortunes 
in meeting the expenses of their under¬ 
taking. Thus the nobility was greatly weakened, and the power 
and patronage of the kings correspondingly increased. 

Again, the effects of the Crusades upon the social and industrial 
life of the Western nations were marked and important. Giving 
opportunity for romantic adventure, they were one of the chief 
fostering influences of chivalry ; while, by bringing the rude peoples 
of the West in contact with the culture of the East, they exerted 
upon them a general refining influence. Also, various arts, manu¬ 
factures, and inventions (among these the windmill 1 and probably 



Fig. 89. A Mediaeval 
Windmill. (From an en¬ 
graving of an abbey and its 
precincts, dating from about 
the middle of the fourteenth 
century) 


1 Windmills were chiefly utilized in the Netherlands, where they were used to pump 
the water from the oversoaked lands, and thus became the means of creating the most 
important part of what is now the kingdom of Holland. 











§ 455 ] 


REFERENCES 


3*7 

the mariner’s compass) before unknown in Europe were at this 
time introduced from Asia, and contributed to enrich and develop 
the industrial life of the European peoples. Furthermore, the 
knowledge of oriental or Graeco-Arabic science and learning gained 
by the crusaders through their expeditions greatly stimulated the 
Latin intellect and helped to awaken in western Europe that 
mental activity which resulted finally in the great intellectual 
outburst known as the Renaissance. 

Lastly, the incentive given to geographical exploration led 
various travelers, such as the celebrated Venetian Marco Polo, to 
range over the most remote countries of Asia. 1 Nor did the matter 
end here. Even that spirit of maritime enterprise and adventure 
which rendered illustrious the close of the Middle Ages, inspiring 
the voyages of Columbus, Vasco da Gama, and Magellan, may be 
traced back to that lively interest in geographical matters awak¬ 
ened by the expeditions of the crusaders. ' 

These various growths and movements, commercial, social, polit¬ 
ical, intellectual, and geographical, in European society, which 
though not originated by the Crusades were nevertheless given a 
fresh impulse by them, we shall trace out in following chapters. 

References. Burr, G. L., The Year 7000 and the Antecedents of the Cru¬ 
sades (in American Historical Reviezu for April, 1901, vol. vi, No. 3; shows the 
unhistorical character of the tradition of the "millennial terror”). Archer, 
T. A., and Kingsford, C. L., The Crusades. Cox, G. W., The Crusades. 
Emerton, E., Mediceval Europe , chap. xi. Adams, G. B., Civilization dining 
the Middle Ages, chap. xi. Michaud, J. F., History of the Crusades , 3 vols. 
(very interesting, but in part discredited through a new appraisement of the 
trustworthiness of the sources for the Crusades). Pears, E., The Fall of 
Constantinople (the best account of the Fourth Crusade). Gray, G. Z., The 
Children's Crusade. Lane-Poole, S., Saladin and the Fall of the Kingdom of 
Jerusalem. 

1 Colonel Henry Yule, speaking of the influence of the travels and writings of Marco 
Polo, says: "The spur which his book eventually gave to geographical studies, and the 
beacon which it hung out at the eastern extremities of the earth, helped to guide the 
aims ... of the greater son of the rival republic. His work was at least a link in 
the providential chain which at last dragged the New World to light.” — Introduction 
to The Book of Ser Marco Polo (London, 1875). 


CHAPTER XLVII 


SUPREMACY OF THE PAPACY; DECLINE OF ITS 

TEMPORAL POWER 

456 . Preliminary Survey; the Papacy at its Height. In an 
earlier chapter on the Empire and the Papacy we related the begin¬ 
nings of the contention for supremacy between Pope and Emperor. 
In the present chapter we shall first speak of the Papacy at the 
height of its power, and then tell how, as the popes, with the Em¬ 
pire ruined, seemed about to realize their ideal of a universal eccle¬ 
siastical and secular monarchy, their temporal power was shattered 
by a new opposing force,— the rising nations. 

457 . Pope Alexander III and Emperor Frederick Bar- 
barossa. A little after the settlement known as the Concordat of 
Worms (sect. 442) the first of the House of Hohenstaufen came 
to the German throne, and then began a sharp contention, lasting, 
with intervals of strained peace, for more than a century, between 
the emperors of this proud family and the successive occupants 
of the papal chair. We can here do no more than simply note 
the issue of the quarrel in so far as it concerned Pope Alexan¬ 
der III and one of the most noted of the Hohenstaufen, Frederick 
Barbarossa, the crusader. After maintaining the contest for many 
years Frederick, vanquished and humiliated, was constrained 
humbly to seek reconciliation at the feet of the pontiff (1177). 
That was for the imperial power its second Canossa. Precisely 
one hundred years had passed since the like humiliation of 
Emperor Henry IV (sect. 441). 

458 . Pope Innocent III and Philip Augustus of France. 
When one of the most powerful and self-reliant of all the em¬ 
perors after Charlemagne was forced thus to bow before the papal 
throne, we are not surprised to find the kings of the different 
countries of Europe subjecting themselves obediently to the same 

3i3 


§ 459 ] 


POPE INNOCENT III 


3i9 


all-pervading authority. French and English history, of the period 
covered by the pontificate of Innocent III, each affords a striking 
illustration of the subject relation which the sovereigns of Europe 
had come to sustain to the Papal See. 

The French throne was at this time held by Philip Augustus 
' 1180-1223). On some pretext Philip had put away his wife 
and entered into another marriage alliance. Pope Innocent III, 
as the censor of the morals of kings as well as of the morals of 
their subjects, commanded him to take back his discarded queen, 
and upon his refusal to do so, laid France under an interdict. 
Philip was finally constrained to yield obedience to the Pope and 
undo the wrong he had done. 

This triumph of the Papal See over so strong and imperious a 
sovereign has been pronounced "the proudest trophy in the 
scutcheon of Rome.” 

459 . Pope Innocent III and King John of England. The 

story of Innocent’s triumph over King John (1199-1216) of Eng¬ 
land is familiar. The see of Canterbury falling vacant, John or¬ 
dered the monks who had the right of election to give the place 
to a favorite of his. They obeyed; but the Pope immediately 
declared the election void, and caused the vacancy to be filled 
with one of his own friends, Stephen Langton. John declared 
that Langton should never enter England as primate, and pro¬ 
ceeded to confiscate the estates of the see. Innocent now laid all 
England under an interdict, excommunicated John, and incited 
the French king, Philip Augustus, to undertake a crusade against 
the contumacious rebel. 

The outcome of the matter was that John was compelled to 
yield to the power of the Church. He gave back the lands he had 
confiscated, acknowledged Langton to be the rightful primate of 
England, and even went so far as to give England and Ireland to 
the Pope, receiving them back as a perpetual fief (1213). In token 
of his vassalage he agreed to pay to the Papal See the annual 
sum of one thousand marks sterling. This tribute money was 
actually paid, though irregularly, until the reign of Edward III 
(sect. 463). 


320 


SUPREMACY OF TPIE PAPACY 


[§ 460 


460 . The Mendicant Orders, or Begging Friars. 1 The imme¬ 
diate successors of Innocent III found a strong support for their 
authority in two new monastic orders known as the Domini¬ 
can and the Franciscan. They were so named after their re¬ 
spective founders, St. Dominic (1170-1221) and St. Francis 
(about 1182-1226). Speaking in general terms, until now the 
monk had sought cloistral solitude primarily in order to escape 
from the world and to work out his own salvation. In the new 
orders the members instead of withdrawing from the world were 
to remain in it and give themselves wholly to the work of securing 
the salvation of others. 

Again, the orders were also as orders to renounce all earthly 
possessions, and, "espousing Poverty as a bride,” to rely entirely 
for support upon the daily and voluntary alms of the pious. 2 
Hitherto, while the individual members of a monastic order must 
espouse extreme poverty, the house or fraternity might possess 
any amount of communal wealth. But in the new orders "the 
brethren must be as poor as the brother.” 

There was at first a wide difference between the two fraternities. 
St. Francis and the disciples whom his boundless self-sacrificing 
charity drew about him devoted themselves, in imitation of Christ 
and the apostles, to preaching the gospel to the poor and outcast 
and to visiting those who were sick and in prison. St. Dominic 
made his appeal to the higher and cultured class. He conceived 
his mission to be the combating of heresy, with which the intel¬ 
lectual ferment of the times had begun to fill Christendom. 

The new fraternities grew and spread with marvelous rapidity, 
and in less than a generation they had quite overshadowed all 
the old monastic orders of the Church. The popes conferred 
upon them many and special privileges. They in turn became 
the stanchest friends and supporters of the Roman See. They 
were to the Papacy of the thirteenth century what the Benedictines 

1 From fratres , freres, brethren. 

2 The friars soon came to interpret their vow of poverty more liberally, and believed 
that they met its obligations when they put the title of the property they acquired 
in the hands of the Pope, while they themselves simply enjoyed the use of it. The 
new fraternities grew in time to be among the richest of the monastic orders. 


§ 461 ] 


THE REVOLT OF THE NATIONS 


321 


were to the early Papacy or what the later Order of the Jesuits 
was to the papal Church of the Reformation era (sect. 566). 

461 . The Revolt of the Nations. The fourteenth century 
marks the turning point in the history of the temporal power of 
the Papacy. In the course of that century France, Germany, and 
England successively revolted against the Roman See and formally 
denied the right of the Pope to interfere in their political or gov¬ 
ernmental affairs. But it should be carefully noted that the 
leaders of this revolt against the secular domination of the Papacy 
did not think of challenging the spiritual authority of the Pope as 
the supreme head of the Church. Their attitude was wholly like 
that of the Italians of our own day, who, while dispossessing the 
Pope of the last remnant of his temporal sovereignty, abate noth¬ 
ing of their veneration for him as the Vicar of God in all things 
moral and spiritual (sect. 858). 

462 . Pope Boniface VIII and Philip the Fair of France. It 

was during the pontificate of Boniface VIII (1294-1303) that the 
secular authority of the popes received a severe blow and began 
rapidly to decline. In the year 1296 Boniface issued a bull in 
which, under pain of excommunication, he forbade all ecclesias¬ 
tical persons, without papal permission, to pay taxes in any form 
levied by lay rulers. All civil rulers of whatsoever name—baron, 
duke, prince, king, or emperor—who should presume to impose 
upon ecclesiastics taxes of any kind were also to incur the same 
sentence. 

Philip of France regarded the papal claims as an encroachment 
upon the civil authority. The contention between him and the 
Pope speedily grew into a bitter and undignified quarrel. In one 
of his letters to Boniface, Philip addressed the pontiff in words of 
unseemly and studied rudeness. Philip was bold because he knew 
that his people were with him. The popular feeling was given 
expression in a famous States-General which the king summoned 
in 1302, and in another called together the next year. The three 
estates of the realm—the nobility, the clergy, and the commons— 
declared that the Pope had no authority in France in civil 
matters; that the French king had no superior save God. 


322 


SUPREMACY OF THE PAPACY 


[§463 


463 . Removal of the Papal Seat to Avignon; Revolt of Ger¬ 
many and England. Only a few years after this, through the con¬ 
currence of various influences, the papal seat was removed from 
Rome to x\vignon, in Provence, adjoining the frontier of France. 
Here it remained for a space of nearly seventy years (1309-1376), 
an era known in Church history as the " Babylonian Captivity.' 5 
While it was established here all the popes were Frenchmen and 
their policies were largely dictated by the French kings. Under 
these circumstances it was but natural that outside of France there 
should be stirred up a more and more angry protest against the 
interference of the popes in civil matters. The measures taken 
at this time by Germany and England, in both of which countries 
a national sentiment was springing up, show how completely the 
Papacy had lost prestige as an international power. 

In 1338 the German princes, with whom rested the right of 
electing the German king, in opposing the papal claims declared 
that the German Emperor derived all his powers from God through 
them and not from the Pope. The German Diet indorsed this 
declaration, and the principle that the German Emperor, as to 
his election and the exercise of his functions, is independent of 
the Papal See became from that time forward a part of the 
German constitution. 

A little later (in 1366), during the reign of Edward III, the 
English Parliament, acting in a like spirit and temper, put an end 
to English vassalage to Rome by formally refusing to pay the 
tribute pledged by King John 1 and by repudiating wholly the 
claims of the popes upon England as a fief of the Holy See. 2 

464 . The Papacy remains a Spiritual Theocracy. After the 
events of the fourteenth century the Roman pontiffs were never 
able to exercise such authority over the kings of Europe, or exact 

1 See sect. 459. The payment of this tribute had fallen in arrears. 

- Another disastrous result to the Papacy of the Babylonian exile was the discontent 
created among the Italians by the situation of the papal court, which led to an open rup¬ 
ture between them and the papal party. In 1378 the opposing factions each elected 
a Pope, and thus there were two heads of the Church, one at Avignon and another 
at Rome. Such was the beginning of the Great Schism (1378-1417). A generation 
passed before the Catholic world was again united under a single spiritual head. 


§ 464 ] THE PAPACY A SPIRITUAL THEOCRACY 


32J. 

from them such obedience in civil affairs, as had been possible- 
for the popes of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The splendid 
ideal of Hildebrand, though so nearty realized, had at last, as to 
one half of what he purposed, proved an utter failure. 

We say that the Roman pontiffs failed as to one half of their pur¬ 
pose ; for while they failed to make good their supremacy in tem¬ 
poral affairs, they did succeed in establishing and perpetuating an 
absolute spiritual dominion, their plenary authority in all matters 
of faith being today acknowledged by not far from half of all 
those who bear the name of Christian. 

And so the Papacy, though its temporal power has been 
entirely taken from it, and its spiritual authority rejected in gen¬ 
eral by the Northern nations, still remains, as Macaulay says, 
"not in decay, not a mere antique, but full of life and youthful 
vigor.” The Pope is today, in the view of a great section of 
Christendom, the infallible head of a Church that, in the famous 
words of the brilliant writer just quoted, "was great and respected 
before the Saxon had set foot on Britain, before the Frank had 
passed the Rhine, when Grecian eloquence still flourished in 
Antioch, when idols were still worshiped in the temple of Mecca. 
And she may still exist in undiminished vigor when some traveler 
from New Zealand shall, in the midst of a vast solitude, take his 
stand on a broken arch of London Bridge to sketch the ruins 
of St. Paul’s.” 

References. Bryce, J., The Holy Roman Empire , chaps, xi and xiii. Pastor, 
L., The History of the Popes , vol. i (Catholic). Emerton, E., Medioeval Europe , 
sections of chaps, ix and x. Barry, W., The Papal Monarchy , chaps, xviii-xxv. 
Balzani, U., The Popes and the Hohensiaufen. Tout, T. F., The Empire and 
the Papacy , chaps, xi, xiv, xvi, and xxi. Sabatier, P., Life of St. Francis of 
Assisi (a book of genius and spiritual insight). The Mirror of Perfection (ed. 
by Paul Sabatier). This is the life of St. Francis written by a companion and 
disciple. It is a wonderful story simply and lovingly told. Creighton, M. r 
Histoiy of the Papacy , vol. i, "The Great Schism; the Council of.ConstanceT 
JESSOPP, A., The Coming of the Friars. 


CHAPTER XLVIII 


TURANIAN CONQUESTS; MONGOLS AND TURKS 

465 . The Huns and the Hungarians. The Huns, of whom we 
have already told, were the first Turanians 1 that during historic 
times pushed their way in among the peoples of Europe (sect. 332). 

The next Turanian invaders of Europe that we need here notice 
were the Magyars, or Hungarians, another branch of the Hunnic 
race, who in the ninth century of our era succeeded in thrusting 
themselves far into the continent, and establishing there the 
important kingdom of Hungary. These intruders soon adopted 
the manners, customs, and religion (though not the language) of 
the peoples about them—became, in a word, Europeanized, and 
for a long time were the main defense of Christian Europe against 
the Turkish tribes of the same race that broke into the continent 
on the southeast in the fourteenth century. 

466 . The Mongols. Two centuries and more after the intrusion 
of the Hungarians into Europe, the Mongols, or Tatars, cruel 
and untamed nomads bred on the steppes of central and eastern 
Asia, that nursery of conquering races, began to set up a new 
dominion among the various tribes of Mongolia. Their first great 
chieftain was Jenghiz Khan (1206-1227), the most terrible 
scourge that ever afflicted the human race. At the head of in¬ 
numerable hordes composed largely of Turkish tribes, callous and 
pitiless in their slaughterings as though their victims belonged to 
another species than themselves, Jenghiz traversed with sword and 
torch a great part of Asia. He conquered all the northern part 
of China, and then turning westward overran Turkestan and 

Persia. Cities disappeared as he advanced; populous plains were 

• 

1 This term is used to designate the northern branch (Finns, Huns, Hungarians, Mon¬ 
gols or Tatars, Turks, etc.) of the Mongolian race. Some of these nations have been 
greatly modified through intermixture with Caucasians on the west or with Chinese on 
the southeast: but all show their kinship in their language. 

324 


§ 466 ] 


THE MONGOLS 


325 


transformed into silent deserts. Before death overtook him he had 
extended his authority to the Dnieper in Russia and to the valley 
of the Indus. Even in death he claimed his victims: at his tomb 
forty maidens were slain that their spirits might go to serve him 
in the other world. 

One of the most noted of the later Mongol chieftains was Kublai 
Khan (1259-1294), who made Cambalu, the modern Peking, his 



Fig. 90. Hut-Wagon of the Mediaeval Tatars. (From Yule’s 

Book of Ser Marco Polo ) 

The wandering Scyths who dwell 
In latticed huts high-poised on easy wheels. 

./Eschylus, Prom. Pine/., 709-710 ; quoted by Yule 


royal seat, and there received ambassadors and visitors from all 
parts of the world. It was at the court of this prince that the 
celebrated Italian traveler Marco Polo resided many years and 
gained that valuable and quickening knowledge of the Far East 
which he communicated to Europe in his remarkable work of 
travels and observations. 

Upon the death of Kublai Khan the immoderately extended 
and loosely knit empire fell into disorder and separated into 
many petty states. It was restored by Timur, or Tamerlane 
( i3 6 9 _ I4 o 5), a remote relative of Jenghiz Khan. His dominions 
came to embrace a great part of Asia. 








326 TURANIAN CONQUESTS [§466 

Timur’s immense empire crumbled to pieces after his death. 
His descendant Baber invaded India (1525) and established 
there what became known as the Kingdom of the Great Moguls. 
This Mongol state lasted over two hundred years,—until de¬ 
stroyed in the eighteenth century by the Persians and the English. 
The magnificence of the court of the Great Moguls at Delhi 
and Agra is one of the most splendid traditions of the East. 



Fig. 91. The Taj Mahal at Agra. (From a photograph) 

This magnificent monument was erected by the Mogul emperor Shah Jehan (1628-1658), 

for a favorite wife who died in 1631 

Asia has never recovered from the terrible devastation wrought 
by the Mongol conquerors. Many districts swarming with life 
were swept clean of their population by these destroyers of the 
race and have remained to this day desolate as the tomb. But it 
is the relation of the Mongol eruption to the history of the West 
that chiefly concerns us at present. This revolution had signifi¬ 
cance for European history almost solely on account of the Mon¬ 
gols having laid the yoke of their power for a long time—for 
about three centuries—upon the Eastern Slavs. This was some 
such calamity for Russia as the later conquests of the Ottoman 
Turks were for the lands of southeastern Europe. 









§ 467 ] BEGINNINGS OF THE OTTOMAN POWER 327 

467 . The Beginnings of the Ottoman 1 Empire. The latest, 
most permanent, and most important historically of all the 
Turanian sovereignties was that established by the Ottoman Turks. 
Themucleus of this great empire was a little state set up in Asia 
Minor about the middle of the thirteenth century by a band of 
Turkish warriors. Gradually the Ottoman princes subjected to 
their rule the surrounding tribes, and at the same time seized 
upon province after province of the Asiatic possessions of the 
Byzantine emperors. During the latter half of the fourteenth 
century a large part of the regions that came to be known as 
Turkey in Europe fell into their hands. 

468 . The Janizaries. The conquests of the Turks were greatly 
aided by a remarkably efficient body of soldiers known as the 
Janizaries, which was organized early in the fourteenth century. 
This select corps was composed at first of the fairest children of 
Christian captives, who were brought up in the Mohammedan 
faith. When war ceased to furnish recruits, the sultans levied a 
tribute of children on their Christian subjects. At one time this 
tribute amounted to two thousand boys yearly. This method of 
recruiting the corps was maintained for about three centuries. 

469 . The Fall of Constantinople (1453). The fall of Con¬ 
stantinople was delayed for a time by the attacks of the Mongols 
upon the Ottomans in Asia. But finally, in the year 1453, Moham¬ 
med II the Great laid siege to the capital with a vast army and 
fleet. After a short investment the place was taken by storm. Of 
the hundred thousand inhabitants of the capital many thousands 
were slain and above fifty thousand made slaves. The Cross on 
the dome of St. Sophia was replaced by the Crescent. 

Thus fell New Rome into the hands of the barbarians of the 
East almost an exact millennium after Old Rome had passed into 
the possession of the barbarians of the West. Its fall was one 
of the most harrowing and fate-laden events in history. As 
Mohammed, like Scipio at Carthage, gazed upon the ruined city 
and the empty palace of Constantine, he is said, impressed by the 

1 From Othman I (1288-1326), or Osman, whence not only " Ottoman,” but " Osman- 
lis,” the favorite name which the Turks apply to themselves. 


3 2 8 


TURANIAN CONQUESTS 


[§469 


mutability of fortune, to have repeated musingly the lines of the 
Persian poet Firdusi: "The spider’s web is the curtain in Caesar’s 
palace; the owl is the sentinel on the watchtower of Afrasiab.” 1 

The Turks have ever remained quite insensible to the influences 
of European civilization. They were always looked upon as in¬ 
truders in Europe, and their presence there led to several of the 



The Empire of the Ottoman Turks about 1464 


most sanguinary wars of modern times. Gradually they were 
pushed out from practically all their European possessions and 
driven back across the Bosphorus, just as the Moslem Moors were 
expelled from the southwestern corner of the continent by the 
Christian chivalry of Spain. 

References. The Book of Ser Marco Polo, 2 vols. (trans. by Henry Yule ; new 
ed. revised by Henri Cordier). The best part of these volumes is condensed 
in Noah Brooks’ The Story of Marco Polo. Howorth, H. II., History of the 
Mongols from the Ninth to the Nineteenth Century, 3 parts (the best and most 
comprehensive work on the subject). Creasy, E. S., History of the Ottoman 
Turks, vol. i, chaps i-vi. Gibbon, E., The Decline and Pall, chaps. Ixiv-lxviii. 
Mijatovich, C., Constantine the Last Emperor of the Greeks; or the Conquest 
of Constantinople by the Turks, A.D. 1453 (the best account in English). 
Poole, S. L., The Story of Tin-key, chaps, i-vii. Freeman, E. A., The Ottoman 
Power in Europe, chaps, i-iv. Wells, H. G., The Outline of History , vol. ii, 
chap. xxxv. 


1 Afrasiab is the name of a personage who figures in the historical legends of 
Persia. 






CHAPTER XLIX 


THE GROWTH OF THE TOWNS 

470. Rapid Development of the Cities in the Tenth and 
Eleventh Centuries. The old Roman towns, as points of attack 
and defense, suffered much during the period of the barbarian 
invasions. When the storm had passed, many of the once strong- 
walled towns lay "rings of ruins” on the wasted plains. But it 
was not alone the violence of the destroyers of the Empire that 
brought so many cities to ruin; what chiefly caused their depopu¬ 
lation and decay was the preference of the barbarians for the open 
country to the city. Up to the eleventh century the population of 
Europe was essentially a rural population like that of Russia today. 

But just as soon as the invaders had settled down and civiliza¬ 
tion had begun to revive, the towns began gradually to assume 
somewhat of their former importance. During the tenth century 
western Europe, it will be recalled, was terribly troubled by the 
Northmen, the Hungarians, and the Saracens (sect. 418). There 
being no strong central government, the cities, thrown upon their 
own resources for defense, armed their militia, and above all else 
surrounded themselves with walls. Strong walls were the only 
sure protection in those evil times. Thus Europe became thick¬ 
set with strong-walled cities, the counterpart of the castles of the 
feudal lords, which were the defense of the countryside. 

471. The Industrial Life of the Towns; the Gilds. The 
towns were the workshops'of the later Middle Ages. The most 
noteworthy characteristics of their industrial life are connected 
with certain corporations or fraternities known as gilds. There 
were two chief classes of these, the merchant gild and the. craft 
gilds. The members of the merchant gild, speaking generally, 
were the chief landowners and traders of the place. The craft 
gilds were unions of the shoemakers, the bakers, the weavers, the 

3 2 9 


330 THE GROWTH OF THE TOWNS [§472 

spinners, the dyers, the millers, and so on to the end. In some 
cities there were upwards of fifty of these associations. 

The internal history of the towns during the fourteenth and 
fifteenth centuries is very largely the story of the gilds in their 
manifold activities. This story, however, it is impossible to give 
even in outline in our short space. We must content ourselves 


Fig. 92. The Amphitheater at Arles in Mediaeval Times 

The amphitheater was made a fortress, packed with houses, in the eighth century, on 
account of Saracen incursions.— Justin H. Smith 

with having merely, indicated the place of these interesting 
and important fraternities in the life of the mediaeval towns. 

472 . The Hanseatic 1 League. When, in the eleventh and 
twelfth centuries, the towns of northern Europe began to extend 
their commercial connections, the greatest drawback to their trade 
was the insecurity and disorder that everywhere prevailed. The 
trader who intrusted his goods to the overland routes was in danger 
of losing them at the hands of the robber nobles, who watched all 
the lines of travel and either robbed the merchant outright or 
levied an iniquitous toll upon his goods. Nor was the way by sea 
beset with less peril. Piratical crafts scoured the waters and made 
booty of any luckless merchantman they might overpower or lure 
to wreck upon the dangerous shores. 

I From the old German hansci , a confederation or union. 





















§ 472] 


THE HANSEATIC LEAGUE 


33i 


This state of things led some of the German cities, about the 
middle of the fourteenth century, to form, for the protection of 
their merchants, an alliance called the Hanseatic League. The 
confederation eventually embraced eighty or more of the principal 
towns of North Germany. In order to facilitate the trading opera¬ 
tions of its members, the league established in different foreign 



The Hansa Towns and their Chief Foreign Settlements 


cities trading posts and warehouses. The most noted centers 
of the trade of the confederation were the cities of Bruges, London, 
Bergen, Wisby, and Novgorod. The league thus became a vast 
monopoly, which endeavored to control in the interests of its own 
members the entire commerce of northern Europe. 

Numerous causes concurred to undermine the prosperity of the 
Hansa towns and to bring about the dissolution of the league. 
Among these were the great maritime discoveries of the fifteenth 
and sixteenth centuries, which transferred the centers of commer¬ 
cial activity as well from the Baltic as from the Mediterranean 
ports to the harbors on the Atlantic seaboard, and the Reformation 
and the accompanying religious wars in Germany, which brought 
many of the Hansa towns +<? utter ruin. 







332 


THE GROWTH OF THE TOWNS 


[§473 


473. Causes of the Early Growth of the Italian Cities. But 
it was in Italy that the mediaeval cities acquired the greatest 
power and influence. Several things conspired to promote their 
early and rapid development, but a main cause of their prosperity 
was their trade with the East, and the enormous impulse given to 
this commerce by the Crusades. 

With wealth came power, and all the chief Italian cities became 
distinct, self-governing states, with just a nominal dependence 
upon Pope or Emperor. Toward the close of the thirteenth 
century northern and central Italy was divided among about 
two hundred contentious little city-republics. Italy had become 
another Greece. 

474. The Rise of Despots. The constant wars of the Italian 
cities with each other and the incessant strife of parties within 
each city led to the same issue as that to which tended the end¬ 
less contentions and divisions of the Greek cities in ancient times. 
Their democratic institutions were overthrown, and by the end 
of the thirteenth century a large part of the city-republics of 
northern and central Italy had fallen into the hands of domestic 
tyrants, many of whom by their crimes rendered themselves as 
odious as the worst of the tyrants who usurped supreme power in 
the cities of ancient Hellas (sect. 123). 

475. Venice. Venice, the most famous of the Italian cities, had 
its beginnings in the fifth century in the rude huts of some refugees 
who fled out into the marshes of the Adriatic to escape the fury 
of the Huns of Attila (sect. 333). Century after century conquests 
and negotiations gradually extended the possessions of the island 
republic, until she finally came to control the coast and waters of 
the eastern Mediterranean in much the same way that Carthage 
had mastery of the western Mediterranean at the time of the First 
Punic War. Even before the Crusades her trade with the East 
was very extensive, and by those expeditions it was expanded to 
enormous dimensions. 

Venice was at the height of her power during the thirteenth, 
fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries. Her supremacy on the sea was 
celebrated each year by the unique ceremony of "Wedding the 


§ 476] SERVICES OF THE MEDIAEVAL TOWNS 


333 


Adriatic” by the dropping of a ring into the sea. The origin of 
this custom was as follows: In the year 1177 Pope Alexander III, 
out of gratitude to the Venetians for services rendered him, gave 
a ring to the Doge with these words: " Take this as a token of 
dominion over the sea, and wed her every year, you and your suc¬ 
cessors forever, in order that all may know that the sea belongs 
to Venice and is subject to her as a bride is subject to her 
husband.” This cere¬ 
mony was one of the 
most brilliant spectacles 
of the Middle Ages. 

The decline of Venice 
dates from the fifteenth 
century. The conquests 
of the Ottoman Turks 
during this century de¬ 
prived her of a great 
part of the territory she 
had east of the Adriatic, 
and finally the discov¬ 
ery of the New World 
by Columbus and of an 
unbroken water route to 
India by Vasco da Gama 
gave a deathblow to her commerce. From this time on the trade 
with the East was to be conducted from the Atlantic ports instead 
of from those in the Mediterranean. 

476. Services of the Mediaeval Towns to Civilization. Mod¬ 
ern civilization inherited much from each of the three great centers 
of mediaeval life,— the monastery, the castle, and the town. We 
have noticed what came out of cloister and baronial hall, what 
the monk and what the baron contributed to civilization (sects. 
373, 422). We must now see what came out of the town,—what 
contribution the burgher made to European life and culture. 

In the first place, the towns were the centers of the industrial 
and commercial life of the Middle Ages, and laid the foundations 



Fig. 93. State Barge of Venice used 
in the Ceremony of "Wedding the 
Adriatic ” (From a model preserved in the 
Venetian Arsenal; after Lacroix) 

She was a maiden city bright and free; 

No guile seduced, no force could violate; 

And, when she took unto herself a mate, 

She must espouse the everlasting sea. 

Wordsworth 








334 


THE GROWTH OF THE TOWNS 


[§ 476 


of that vast system of international exchange and traffic which 
forms a characteristic feature of modern European civilization. 

In the second place, the mediaeval cities, along with the mon¬ 
asteries, were the foster home of architecture, sculpture, and paint¬ 
ing. These things, as has been well said, are "the beautiful flowers 
of free city life.” The old picturesque high-gabled houses, the 
sculptured gildhalls, the artistic gateways, the superb palaces, and 
the imposing cathedrals found in so many of the cities of Europe 
today bear witness to the important place which the mediaeval 
towns hold in the history of architecture and art . 1 

In the third place, the towns were the birthplace of modern 
political liberty. The inhabitants of the towns grew into a new 
order destined to a great political future, the so-called Third 
Estate, or Commons. During the course of the thirteenth and 
fourteenth centuries the representatives of the towns came to 
sit along with the nobles and the clergy in the national diets 
or parliaments of the different countries . 2 What this meant for 
the development of modern parliamentary government we shall 
learn later. 

References. Guizot, F. P. G., History of Civilization in Europe, lect. vii, 
"Rise of the Free Cities." Green, Mrs. J. R., Town Life in the Fifteenth 
Century. Zimmern, H., The Hansa Towns. Symonds, J. A., Age of the Despots, 
chaps, iii and iv. Hazlitt, W. C., The Venetian Republic (the standard authority 
in English). Thayer, W. R., A Short IPistory of Venice. Gross, C., The Gild 
Merchant. M rs. Oliphant, Makers of Venice. In the" Mediaeval Towns ” series 
there are separate volumes on Florence, Nuremberg, Bruges, etc., which con¬ 
tain chapters of interest. 

t 1 he enthusiasm for church building was most marked in the twelfth and thirteenth 
centuries. J he style of architecture first employed was the Romanesque, characterized 
by the rounded arch and the dome; but toward the close of the twelfth century this 
was superseded by the Gothic, distinguished by the pointed arch, the slender spire, and 
rich ornamentation. 

1 In England the towns were first asked to send representatives to Parliament in 
1265 (sect. 488) ; in France the delegates of the Third Estate sat with the lords and 
clergy for the first time in 1302 (sect. 506); in Aragon and Castile the representatives 
of the cities were admitted to the Cortes in 1133 and 1162 respectively; in Germany the 
deputies of the free imperial cities acquired membership in the Diet during the reign of 
Henry VI J (1308-1313). 



Fig. 94. Milan Cathedral. (From a photograph) 































































* 




















































CHAPTER L 


THE UNIVERSITIES AND THE SCHOOLMEN 

477. The Rise and Early Growth of the Universities. A 

significant feature of the work of Charlemagne was the establish¬ 
ment of schools in connection with the cathedrals and monasteries 
of his realm. From the opening of the ninth till well on into the 
eleventh century the lamp of learning was fed in these Church 
schools, although throughout the tenth century the flame burned 
very low. But early in the twelfth century a new intellectual 
movement began to stir Western Christendom. This mental revival 
was caused by many agencies, particularly by the quickening in¬ 
fluence of the Graeco-Arabian culture in Spain and the Orient, 
with which the Christian West was just now being brought into 
closer contact through the Crusades. As a consequence of this 
newly awakened intellectual life there arose a demand for a more 
secular system of education than that given in the cloister schools, 
■—one that should prepare a person for entering upon a professional 
career as a physician, lawyer, or statesman. 1 

It was in response to these new demands that the universities 
came into existence. Some of these were mere expansions of 
cathedral or monastery schools; others developed out of lay 
schools which had grown up in commercial towns. Three of the 
most ancient universities were the University of Salerno, noted 
for its teachers in medicine ; the University of Bologna, frequented 
for its instruction in law; and the University of Paris, revered for 
the authority of its doctors in theology. The University of Paris 

1 The number of faculties in the mediaeval university was not fixed. A usual number 
was four, — the Faculty of Theology, the Faculty of Medicine, the Faculty of Law, 
and the Faculty of Arts (or Philosophy). The course in arts embraced what is today 
covered by the courses in letters and science, and served as a preparation for entrance 
upon one of the three specialized professional courses, though most of the students 
never went beyond it. 


335 


UNIVERSITIES AND SCHOOLMEN 


[§ 47 S 


336 


save constitution and rules to so many as to earn the designation 
of "the Mother of Universities and the Sinai of the Middle Ages. ’ 
478. Students and Student Life. The number.of students in 
attendance at the mediaeval universities was large. Contempo¬ 
raries tell of crowds of fifteen, twenty, and even thirty thousand 



Fig. 95. University Audience in the Fifteenth Century 
(From Geiger’s Renaissance und Hnmanismns') 


at the most popular institutions. These numbers are doubtless 
exaggerated, but that the attendance was numerous is certain, for 
in those times all who were eager to acquire knowledge must needs 
seek some seat of learning, since the scarcity and great cost of 
manuscript books put home study out of the question. Then, 
again, many of the pupils attending the non-professional courses 
were mere boys of twelve or thereabouts,— the high-school pupils 
of today; while, on the other hand, the student body embraced 
many mature men, among whom were to be counted canons, deans, 
archdeacons, and other dignitaries. 








































































§ 479 ] 


BRANCHES OF STUDY 


337' 


Student life in the earlier university period, before the dormi¬ 
tory and college system was introduced, was unregulated and 
shamefully disorderly. The age was rough and lawless, and the 
student class were no better than their age; indeed, in some re¬ 
spects they seem to have been worse. For the student body 
included many rich young profligates, who found the universities 
the most agreeable places for idling away their time, as well as 
many wild and reckless characters who were constantly engaging 
in tavern brawls, terrorizing the townsmen at night, even way¬ 
laying travelers on the public roads and committing "many other 
enormities hateful to God.” 

479. Branches of Study and Methods of Instruction. The 
advanced studies given greatest prominence in the universities 
were the three professional branches of theology, medicine, and 
law. The natural sciences can hardly be said to have existed,, 
although in alchemy lay hidden the germ of chemistry and in 
astrology that of astronomy. The Ptolemaic theory, which made 
the earth the stationary center of the revolving celestial spheres,, 
gave color and form to all conceptions of the structure of the 
universe. 

The method of instruction, which was given in the Latin 
language, was the same in all the university departments. It was 
a servile study of texts, which were regarded with a veneration 
bordering on superstition. Not even in the physical sciences was 
there any serious appeal to experience, to observation, to experi¬ 
ment. In anatomy discussions took the place of dissections. 1 
Books were considered better authority than nature herself. 
"Aristotle was regarded as the founders of religions are wont to 
be considered.” One venturing to criticize this "Master of those 
who know” was looked upon as presumptuous and irreverent. 

480. Scholasticism; the Province of the Schoolmen. Spring¬ 
ing up within the early ecclesiastical schools and developed within 
the later universities, there came into existence a method of 
philosophizing which, from the place of its origin, was called 

1 At Bologna, where anatomical study was most advanced, each student witnessed 
only one dissection during the year. 


338 


UNIVERSITIES AND SCHOOLMEN 


[§481 


Scholasticism, while its representatives were called Schoolmen, or 
Scholastics. The chief task of the Schoolmen was the reducing 
of Christian doctrines to scientific form, the harmonizing of reve¬ 
lation and reason, of faith and science. Viewed in this light, it was 
not altogether unlike that theological philosophy of the present 
day whose aim is to harmonize the Bible with the facts of 
modern science. 

481. Peter Abelard. The most eminent of the early School¬ 
men was Peter Abelard ( 1079 - 1142 ). Such a teacher the world 
had probably not produced since Socrates enchained the youth 
of Athens. At Paris over five thousand pupils are said to have 
thronged his lecture room. Driven by the shame of a public 
scandal to seek retirement, he hid himself first in a monastery 
and later in a solitude near the city of Troyes. But his admirers 
followed him into the wilds in such multitudes that a veritable 
university sprang up around him in his desert retreat. 

Abelards brilliant reputation as a philosopher was tarnished 
by grave faults of character. Intrusted with the education of a 
fascinating and mentally gifted maiden, Heloi'se by name, Abelard 
betrayed the confidence reposed in him. A secret marriage bound 
in a tragic fate the lives of teacher and pupil. The "tale of Abe¬ 
lard and Heloi'se” forms one of the most romantic yet saddest 
traditions of the twelfth century. 

482. Scholasticism in the Thirteenth Century. The thirteenth 
century was the great age of Scholasticism. Its most illustrious 
representatives during this period were Albertus Magnus, or 
"Albert the Great” (d. 1280 ), who was called "the second Aris¬ 
totle,” and Thomas Aquinas (d. 1274 ), known as "the Angelic 
Doctor.” As philosophers these Schoolmen stand to each other 
in some such relation as did Plato and Aristotle, nor are their 
names unworthy of being linked with the names of those great 
thinkers of ancient Greece. The reputation of Aquinas as the 
greatest Scholastic and theologian of the Middle Ages rests largely 
upon his prodigious work entitled Summa Theologies, or "Sum 
of Theology.” The work is regarded as the standard of orthodoxy 
in the Roman Catholic Church. 


§ 483] 


THE DECLINE OF SCHOLASTICISM 


339 


The most noteworthy representative of the scientific activity of 
the Scholastic age was the English Franciscan friar, Roger Bacon 
(d. about 1294 ), called "the Wonderful Doctor,” on account of 
his marvelous knowledge of mechanics, optics, chemistry, and 
other sciences. He understood the composition of gunpowder, or 
a similar explosive, and seemingly the nature of steam; for in one 
of his works he says that "wagons and ships could be built which 
would propel themselves with the swiftness of an arrow, without 
horses and without sails.” His contemporaries believed him to 
be in league with the devil. He certainly was in league with the 
Arabian scholars, whose works he studied. He suffered persecution 
and was imprisoned for fourteen years. 

Roger Bacon’s greatest bequest to posterity was a book called 
Opus Majus, in which are anticipated in a wonderful way those 
principles of modern inductive science laid down by Francis 
Bacon in the seventeenth century. 

483. The Decline of Scholasticism; Services of the School¬ 
men to Intellectual Progress. The fourteenth and fifteenth cen¬ 
turies witnessed the decline of Scholasticism. In this period 
Scholastic debate in the hands of unworthy successors of the earlier 
great philosophers fell away for the most part into barren disputa¬ 
tions over idle and impossible questions. The Schoolmen sank 
in public estimation and gave place to the humanists (sect. 529 ). 

But notwithstanding this degeneracy of Scholasticism, the 
Schoolmen as a whole rendered a great service to the intellectual 
progress of Europe. By their ceaseless debates they sharpened the 
wits of men and created activity of thought and deftness in argu¬ 
ment. They made the universities of the time real mental gym¬ 
nasia, in which the awakening mind of Europe was trained and 
strengthened for its later and, happily, more fruitful work. 

References. RASHDALL, H., The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages. 
Laurie, S. S., The Rise and Early Constitution of Universities. Compayre, G., 
Abelard and the Origin and Early History of Universities. Jessopp, A., The 
Coming of the Friars , chap, vi, " The Building up of a University.” Emerton, 
E., Mediaeval Europe , chap. xiii. Le Gallienne, Richard, Old Love Stories 
Retold , "Abelard and Heloise.” 


CHAPTER LI 


GROWTH OF THE NATIONS: FORMATION OF NATIONAL 
GOVERNMENTS AND LITERATURES 

484. Introductory. The most important political movement 
that marked the latter part of the Middle Ages was the fusion, 
in several of the countries of Europe, of the petty feudal prin¬ 
cipalities and half-independent cities and communes into great 
nations with strong centralized governments. This movement was 
accompanied by, or rather consisted in, the decline of feudalism 
as a governmental system, the loss by the cities of their freedom, 
and the growth of the power of the kings. 

In some countries, however, conditions were opposed to this 
centralizing tendency, and in these the Modern Age was reached 
without nationality having been found. But in England, in France, 
and in Spain circumstances all seemed to tend toward unity, and 
by the close of the fifteenth century there were established in these 
countries strong despotic monarchies. Yet even among those 
peoples where national governments did not appear, some progress 
w 7 as made toward unity through the formation of national languages 
and literatures, and the development of common feelings and 
aspirations, so that these races or peoples were manifestly only 
awaiting the opportunities of a happier period for the maturing 
of their national life. 

The rise of monarchy and the decline of feudalism, this substitu¬ 
tion of strong centralized governments in place of the feeble, 
irregular, and conflicting rule of the feudal nobles or of other 
local authorities, was a very great gain to the cause of law and 
good order. In these changes the political liberties of all classes, of 
the cities as well as of the nobility, were, it is true, subverted. But 
though Liberty was lost, Nationality was found. And the people 
may be trusted to win back freedom, as we shall see. 

340 


§ 485 ] 


GENERAL STATEMENT 


34i 


I. ENGLAND 

485 . General Statement. In earlier chapters we told of the 
origin of the English people and traced their growth under Saxon, 
Danish, and Norman rulers. In the present sections we shall tell 
very briefly the story of their fortunes under the Plantagenet 
house and its branches, thus carrying on our narrative to the 
accession of the Tudors in 1485, from which event dates the 
beginning of the modern history of England. 

The chief events of the period which we shall notice were the 
loss of the English possessions in France, the wresting of Magna 
Carta from King John, the formation of the House of Commons, 
the wars with Scotland, the Hundred Years’ War with France, 
and the Wars of the Roses. 

486 . Loss of the English Possessions in France (1202-1204). 
The issue of the battle of Hastings, in 1066, made William of 
Normandy king of England. But we must bear in mind that he 
still held his possessions in France as a fief from the French king, 
whose vassal he was. These Continental lands, save for some short 
intervals, remained under the rule of William’s Norman successors 
in England. Then, when Henry, Count of Anjou, came to the 
English throne as the first of the Plantagenets (sect. 435), these 
territories were greatly increased by the French possessions of that 
prince. The larger part of Henry’s dominions, indeed, was in 
France, the whole of the western half of the country being in 
his hands; but for all of this he of course paid homage to the 
French king. 

As was inevitable, a feeling of intense jealousy sprang up 
between the two sovereigns. The French king was ever watching 
for some pretext upon which he might deprive his rival of his pos¬ 
sessions in France. The opportunity came when John, in 1199, 
succeeded Richard the Lion-Hearted as king of England. Twice 
that odious tyrant was summoned by Philip Augustus of France 
to appear before his French peers and clear himself of certain 
charges, one of which was the murder of his nephew Arthur. John 
refused to obey the summons. Philip was finally able, so strong 


342 GROWTH OF THE NATIONS [§ 487 

was the feeling against John, to dispossess him of all his lands in 
France, save a part of Aquitaine in the south. 

The loss of these lands was a great gain to England. The 
Angevin kings had been pursuing a policy which, had it been 
successful, would have made England a subordinate part of a great 
Continental state. That danger was now averted. 

487 . Magna Carta (1215). Magna Carta, the ''Great Char¬ 
ter,” held sacred as the safeguard* of English liberties, was an 
instrument which the English barons and clergy wrested from 
King John, and in which the ancient rights and privileges of the 
people were clearly defined and guaranteed. 

King John, as will easily be believed from the revelation of 
his character already made, surpassed the worst of his predecessors 
in tyranny and wickedness. His course led to an open revolt of 
the barons of the realm. The tyrant was forced to bow to the 
storm he had raised. He met his barons at Runnymede, a flat 
meadow on the Thames, near Windsor, and there affixed his seal 
to the instrument that had been prepared to receive it. 

Among the important articles of the Great Charter were the 
following, which we give as showing at once the nature of the 
venerable document and the kind of grievances of which the people 
had occasion to complain. 

Art. 12. No scutage 1 or aid shall be imposed in our kingdom 
except by the common council of our kingdom, except for the ran¬ 
soming of our body, for the making of our oldest son a knight, and 
for once marrying our oldest daughter, and for these purposes it shall 
be only a reasonable aid ; . . . 

Art. 39. No free man shall be taken or imprisoned or dispos¬ 
sessed, or outlawed, or banished, or in any way destroyed, nor will we 
go upon him, nor send upon him, except by the legal judgment of his 
peers or by the law of the land. 

The Great Charter did not create new rights and privileges, 
but in its main points simply reasserted and confirmed old usages 
and laws. It was immediately violated by John and afterwards 
was disregarded by many of his successors; but the people always 

1 Scutage was a money payment made in commutation of personal military sendee. 



Domain of the French King 

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§ 488 ] 


THE HOUSE OF COMMONS 


343 


clung to it as the warrant and safeguard of their liberties, and 
again and again forced tyrannical kings to renew and confirm its 
provisions and swear solemnly to observe all its articles. 

Considering the far-reaching consequences that resulted from 
the granting of Magna Carta ,— the securing of constitutional 
liberty as an inheritance for the English-speaking race in all parts 
of the world,—it must always be considered the most important 
concession ever wrung from a tyrannical sovereign. 

488 . Beginnings of the House of Commons (i 265 ). The 
reign of Henry III (1216-1272), John’s son and successor, wit¬ 
nessed the second important step taken in English constitutional 
freedom. This was the formation of the House of Commons, the 
Great Council having up to this time been made up of nobles 
and bishops. It was again the royal misbehavior—so frequently 
is it, as Lieber says, that Liberty is indebted to bad kings, though 
to them she owes no thanks—that led to this great change in 
the form of the English national assembly. 

Henry had violated his oath to observe the provisions of the 
Great Charter and had become even more tyrannical than his 
father. In the words of a contemporary, the English were op¬ 
pressed "like as the people of Israel under Pharaoh.” The final 
outcome was an uprising of the barons and the people similar 
to that in the reign of King John. It was open war between the 
king and his people. 

In order to rally all classes to the support of the cause he 
represented, Earl Simon de Montfort, the leader of the revolt, now 
issued, in the name of the king, who had been taken prisoner, 
writs of summons to the barons (save the king’s adherents), the 
bishops, and the abbots to meet in Parliament; and at the same 
time sent similar writs to the sheriffs of the different shires, direct¬ 
ing them " to return two knights for the body of their county, with 
two citizens or burghers for every city and borough contained 
in it.” This was the first time that plain untitled citizens, or 
burghers, had been called to take their place with the barons, 
bishops, and knights, in the great council of the nation, to join in 
deliberations on the affairs of the realm. 


344 


GROWTH OF THE NATIONS 


[§ 489 



From this gathering, then, may be dated the birth of the 
House of Commons (1265). Formed as it was of knights and 
burghers, representatives of the common people, it was at first a 
weak and timorous body, quite overawed by the great lords, but 

was destined finally to grow into the 
controlling branch of the British 
Parliament. 

489. Wars with Scotland ( 1296 - 
1328 ). In the thirteenth century 
the English kings were claiming suze¬ 
rain rights over Scotland. During 
the reign of Edward I of England the 
Scottish king (Balliol) broke the 
feudal ties which bound him to Ed¬ 
ward and sought an alliance with the 
French king. In the war that fol¬ 
lowed the Scots were defeated and 
Scotland fell back as a forfeited fief 
into the hands of Edward (1296). 
As a sign that the Scottish kingdom 
had come to an end, Edward carried 
off to London the royal regalia, and 
with this a large stone, known as 
"the Stone of Scone,” upon which 
the Scottish kings from time out of 
memory had been accustomed to be 
crowned. The venerated "stone of destiny” was taken to West¬ 
minster Abbey and there made the seat of a stately throne chair, 
which to this day is used in the coronation ceremonies of the 
English sovereigns. 

The two countries were not long united. The Scotch could not 
endure submission, and soon all the Lowlands were in determined 


Fig. 96. Coronation Chair 
in Westminster Abbey 

Beneath the seat is the celebrated 
Scottish Stone of Scone, which 
was carried away from Scotland by 
Edward 1 


revolt. In the great battle of Bannockburn (1314) the English 
army was almost annihilated. It was the most appalling disaster 
that had befallen the arms of the English people since the mem¬ 
orable defeat of Harold at Hastings: 

o 





















§ 490] 


THE HUNDRED YEARS’ WAR 


345 


The independence gained by the Scotch at Bannockburn (for 
though the war went on for some years longer Scotland was prac¬ 
tically an independent nation thereafter) was maintained for nearly 
three centuries, until 1603, when the crowns of England and Scot¬ 
land were peacefully united in the person of James VI of Scotland, 
who became James I of England, the founder of the Stuart dy¬ 
nasty of English kings. During the greater part of these three 
hundred years the two countries were very quarrelsome neighbors. 

The Hundred Years' War (1338-1453) 

490 . Causes of the War. The long and wasteful war between 
England and France known as the Hundred Years’ War was a 
most eventful one, and its effects upon both England and France 
were so important and lasting as to entitle it to a prominent 
place in the records of the closing events of the Middle Ages. 

The wars with Scotland were one of the things that led up to 
this war. All through that struggle France, as the old and 
jealous rival of England, was ever giving aid and encouragement 
to the Scots. Then the English possessions in France, for which 
the English king owed homage to the French sovereign as 
overlord, were a source of constant dispute between the two 
countries. 

491 . The Battle of Crecy (i 346 ). The first great combat of 
the long war was the famous battle of Crecy, in which the Eng¬ 
lish bowmen inflicted upon the French a most terrible defeat. 
Twelve hundred knights, the flower of French chivalry, and thou¬ 
sands of foot soldiers lay dead upon the field. 

The battle of Crecy is memorable for several reasons, but chiefly 
because feudalism and chivalry there received their deathblow. 
"The whole social and political fabric of the Middle Ages,” 
writes Green, " rested on a military base, and its base was suddenly 
withdrawn. The churl had struck down the noble; the bowman 
proved more than a match, in sheer hard fighting, for the knight. 
From the day of Crecy feudalism tottered slowly but surely to 
its grave.” The battles of the world were thereafter to be fought 


346 GROWTH OF THE NATIONS [§ 492 

and won, not by mail-clad knights with battle-ax and lance, but 
by common foot soldiers with bow and gun. 1 

492 . The Black Death (1347-1349). At just this time there 
fell upon Europe the awful pestilence known as the Black Death. 
The plague was introduced from the East by way of the trade 
routes of the Mediterranean, and from the Southern countries 
spread in the course of a few years over the entire continent, its 

virulence without doubt 
being greatly increased 
by the unsanitary con¬ 
dition of the crowded 
towns and the wretched 
mode of living of the 
poorer classes. In not 
a few regions almost all 
the people fell victims 
to the scourge. Many 
monasteries were almost 
emptied. In the Medi¬ 
terranean and the Baltic, 
ships were seen drifting 
about without a soul on board. Crops rotted unharvested in the 
fields ; herds and flocks wandered about unattended. It is estimated 
that from one third to one half of the population of Europe 
perished. Hecker, a historian of the pestilence, estimates the 
total number of victims at twenty-five millions. It was the most 
awful calamity that ever befell the human race. 

493. Battle of Agincourt ( 1415 ). During the reign in Eng¬ 
land of Henry V, France was unfortunate in having an insane 
king, Charles VI; and Henry, taking advantage of the disorder 
into which the French kingdom naturally fell under these circum¬ 
stances, invaded the land with a well-equipped army, made up 
largely of archers. On the field of Agincourt the French suffered 

1 The next two important events of the war were the capture of Calais by the 
English (1347) and the battle of Poitiers (1356), which was for the French a second 
Cr4cy. The battle was followed (in 1360) by the treaty of Bretigny. 



Fig. 97. Charge of French Knights and 
Flight of English Arrows 










§ 494] 


JOAN OF ARC 


347 


a most humiliating defeat, their terrible losses falling, as at Crecy, 
chiefly upon the knighthood. Five years later was concluded a 
treaty , 1 according to the terms of which the French crown, upon 
the death of Charles, was to go to the English king. 

494 . Joan of Arc; the Relief of Orleans (1429). But patriot¬ 
ism was not yet wholly extinct among the French people. There 
were many who regarded the concessions of the treaty as not only 
weak and shameful but as unjust to 
the dauphin Charles, who was thereby 
disinherited, and they accordingly re¬ 
fused to be bound by its provisions. 

Consequently, when the poor insane 
king died the terms of the treaty could 
not be carried out in full, and the war 
dragged on. The party that stood by 
their native prince, afterwards crowned 
as Charles VII, were at last reduced to 
most desperate straits. The greater 
part of the country was in the hands 
of the English, who were holding in 
close siege the important city of 
Orleans. 

But the darkness was the deep gloom 
that precedes the dawn. A strange 
deliverer now appears,— the famous Joan of Arc. This young 
peasant girl, with soul sensitive to impressions from brooding 
over her country’s wrongs and sufferings, saw visions and heard 
voices which bade her undertake the work of delivering France. 
She was obedient unto the heavenly voices. 

Rejected by some, yet received by most of her countrymen 
as a messenger from Heaven, the maiden kindled throughout the 
land a flame of enthusiasm that nothing could resist. Inspiring 
the dispirited French soldiers with new courage, she forced the 
English to raise the siege of Orleans (from which exploit she be¬ 
came known as the "Maid of Orleans”) and speedily brought 

1 The Treaty of Troyes, 1420. 



Fig. 98. Joan of Arc 

We have no authentic likeness of 
Joan of Arc. The above must be 
regarded as an idealized portrait 


GROWTH OF THE NATIONS 


[§ 495 


348 ' 

about the coronation of Prince Charles at Rheims (1429). Shortly 
afterward she fell into the hands of the English, was tried by 
ecclesiastical judges for witchcraft and heresy, and was condemned 
to be burned as a heretic and a witch. Her martyrdom took place 
at Rouen in the year 1431. 

But the spirit of the Maid had already taken possession of the 
French nation. From this on, the war, though long continued, 
went steadily against the English. Little by little they were pushed 
off from the soil they had conquered, and driven out of their own 
Gascon lands of the South as well, until finally they held nothing 
in the land save Calais. Thus ended, in 1453, the year of the 
fall of Constantinople, the Hundred Years’ War. 

495. Effects upon England of the War. The most important 
effects of the war as concerns England were the enhancement of 
the power of the Lower House of Parliament and the awakening 
of a national spirit. The maintaining of the long and costly 
quarrel called for such heavy expenditures of men and money 
that the English kings were made more dependent than hitherto 
upon the representatives of the people, who were careful to make 
their grants of supplies conditional upon the correction of abuses 
or the confirming of their privileges. Thus the war served to 
make the Commons a power in the English government. 

Again, as the war was participated in by all classes alike, the 
great victory at Crecy and the others which followed aroused a 
national pride, which led to a closer union between the different 
elements of society. Normans and English, enlisted in a common 
enterprise, were fused by the ardor of a common patriotic en¬ 
thusiasm into a single people. The real national life of England 
dates from this time. 

The Wars of the Roses (1455-1485) 

496. The Two Roses; the Battle of Bosworth Field. The 

Wars of the Roses is the name given to a long contest between 
the adherents of the houses of York and Lancaster, rival branches 
of the royal family of England. The strife was so named because 


§ 497] 


THE EFFECTS OF THE WARS 


349 


the Yorkists adopted as their badge a white rose and the Lancas¬ 
trians a red one. The battle of Bosworth Field (1485) marks 
the close of the war. In this fight King Richard III, the last 
of the House of York, was overthrown and slain by Henry 
Tudor, Earl of Richmond, who was crowned on the field with 
the diadem which had fallen from the head of Richard, and 
saluted as King Henry VII. With him began the dynasty of 
the Tudors. 

497 . The Effects of the Wars. The first important result of 
the Wars of the Roses was the ruin of the baronage of England. 
One half of the nobility were slain. Those that survived were 
ruined, their estates having been wasted or confiscated during the 
progress of the struggle. Not a single great house retained its 
old-time wealth and influence. The war marks the final downfall 
of feudalism in England. 

The second result of the struggle sprang from the first. This 
was the great peril into which English liberty was cast by the 
ruin of the nobility. It was primarily the barons who had forced 
the Great Charter from King John, and who had kept him and 
his successors from reigning like absolute monarchs. Upon the 
ruins of their order was now erected something like a royal des¬ 
potism. Not until the revolution of the seventeenth century did 
the people, by overturning the throne of the Stuarts, curb the 
undue power of the crown and recover their lost liberties. 

Growth of the English Language and Literature 

498 . The Language. From the Norman Conquest to the 
middle of the fourteenth century there were in use in England 
three languages: Norman French was the speech of the con- 
querqrs and the medium of polite literature; Saxon, or Old 
English, was the tongue of the conquered people; while Latin 
was the language of the laws and records, of the Church services, 
and of the works of the learned. 

Modern English is the old Saxon tongue worn and improved 
by use and enriched by a large infusion of Norman-French 


350 


GROWTH OF THE NATIONS 


[§499 


words, with less important additions from the Latin and other 
languages. It took the place of the Norman French in the 
courts of law about the middle of the fourteenth century. 

499. Effect of the Norman Conquest on English Literature. 
The blow that struck down King Harold and his brave thanes on 
the field of Hastings silenced for the space of above a century the 
voice of English literature. The tongue of the conquerors became 
the speech of the court, the nobility, and the clergy; while the 
language of the despised English was, like themselves, crowded 
out of every place of honor. But when, after a few generations, 
the downtrodden race began to reassert itself, English literature 
emerged from its obscurity, and, with an utterance somewhat 
changed,—yet unmistakably it is the same voice,—resumed its 
interrupted lesson and its broken song. 

500. Chaucer (i 340 ?-i 4 oo). Holding a position high above 
all other writers of early English is Geoffrey Chaucer. He is 
the first in time, and, after Shakespeare, perhaps the first in 
genius, among the great poets of the English-speaking race. 
He is reverently called the "Father of English poetry.” 

Chaucer’s greatest and most important work is his Canterbury 
Tales. The poet represents himself as one of a company of story¬ 
telling pilgrims who have set out on a journey to the tomb of 
Thomas Becket at Canterbury. The persons, thirty-two in 
number, making up the party, represent almost every calling 
in the middle class of English society. The prologue, contain¬ 
ing characterizations of the different members of the company, 
is the most valuable part of the production. Here as in a 
gallery we find faithful portraits of our ancestors of the four¬ 
teenth century. 

501. William Langland. The genial Chaucer shows us the 
pleasant, attractive side of English society and life; William 
Langland, another writer of the same period, in a poem called 
the Vision of Piers the Plowman ( 1362), lights up for us the world 
of the poor and the oppressed. This poem quivers with sympathy 
for the hungry, labor-worn peasant, doomed to a life of weary 
routine and helplessness, despised by haughty lords and robbed by 


§ 502] 


JOHN WYCLIFFE 


35i 


shameless ecclesiastics. The long wars with France had demoral¬ 
ized the nation ; the Black Death had just reaped its awful harvest 
among the ill-clad, ill-fed, and ill-housed poor. Occasional out¬ 
bursts of wrath against the heartlessness of the privileged classes 
in Church and State are the mutterings of the storm soon to burst 
upon the social world in the fury of the Peasants’ Revolt, 1 and 
later upon the religious world in the upheavals of the Reformation. 



Fig. 99. Plowing Scene. (From a manuscript of the fourteenth century) 

502. John Wycliffe ( 1324 - 1384 ). Foremost among the reformers 
and religious writers of the period under review was John 
Wycliffe, called the " Morning Star of the Reformation.” This 
bold reformer attacked first many of the practices and then cer¬ 
tain of the doctrines of the Church. He gave the English people 
the first translation of the entire Bible in the English language. 
By means of manuscript copies it was widely circulated and read. 
Its influence was very great, and from its appearance may be dated 
the beginnings of the Reformation in England. 

II. FRANCE 

503. Beginnings of the French Kingdom. The separate his¬ 
tory of France may be regarded as beginning with the partition 
of Verdun in 843. At that time the Carolingians, of whom we 
have already learned (Chapter XLI), exercised the royal power. 
Toward the close of the tenth century, in 987, the first of the 
Capetian dynasty came to the throne. 

1 In 1381 the English peasants rose in revolt, demanding the abolition of serfdom. 
The uprising was pitilessly suppressed. 


















352 


GROWTH OF THE NATIONS 


[§504 


The first Capetian king differed from his vassal counts and 
dukes simply in having a more dignified title, his power being 
scarcely greater than that of many of the lords who paid him 
homage as their suzerain; but before the close of the Middle Ages 
France had come to be one of the most compact and powerful 
kingdoms in Europe. How various circumstances conspired to 
build up the power of the kings at the expense of that of the 
great feudal lords and of the Church will appear as we go on. 

504. The Acquisition of the English Possessions in France. 
In our sketch of the growth of England we spoke of the extensive 
possessions of the first Angevin kings in France, and told how the 
larger part of these feudal lands were lost through King John’s 
misconduct and resumed as forfeited fiefs by his suzerain Philip 
Augustus, king of France (sect. 486). The annexation of these 
large and flourishing provinces to the crown of France brought a 
vast accession of power and patronage to the king, who was now 
easily the superior of any of his great vassals. 

505. The French and the Crusades. The age of the Capetians 
was the age of the Crusades. These expeditions, while stirring 
all Christendom, appealed especially to the ardent temperament of 
the Gallic race. It was the great predominance of French-speaking 
persons among the first crusaders which led the Eastern peoples to 
call them all Franks, the term still used throughout the East to 
designate Europeans, irrespective of their nationality. 

But it is only the influence of the Crusades on the French 
monarchy that we need to notice here. They tended very ma¬ 
terially to weaken the power and influence of the feudal nobility, 
and in a corresponding degree to strengthen the authority of the 
crown and add to its dignity. The way in which they brought 
about this transfer of power from the aristocracy to the king 
has been already explained in the chapter on the Crusades 
(sect. 455). 

506. Admission of the Third Estate to the National As¬ 
sembly ( 1302 ). The event of the greatest political significance 
in the Capetian age was the admission, in the reign of Philip the 
Fair, of the representatives of the towns to the National Assembly. 


§ 507] EFFECTS OF THE WAR UPON FRANCE 353 

This transaction is in French history what the creation of the 
House of Commons is in English history (sect. 488). 

A dispute having arisen between Philip and the Pope respecting 
the control of the offices and revenues of the Church in France 
(sect. 462), Philip, in order to rally to his support all classes 
throughout his kingdom, called a meeting of the National Assem¬ 
bly, to which he invited representatives of the burghers, or inhabit¬ 
ants of the towns. This council had hitherto been made up of 
two estates only,— the nobles and the clergy; now is added what 

p 

comes to be known as the Tiers Etat, or Third Estate, while the 
assembly henceforth is called the States-General. Before the grow¬ 
ing power of this Third Estate we shall see the Church, the nobil¬ 
ity, and the monarchy all go down, just as in England we shall see 
clergy, nobles, and king yield to the rising power of the English 
Commons. 

507. Effects upon France of the Hundred Years , War. Hav¬ 
ing already in connection with English affairs touched upon the 
causes and incidents of this war, we shall here speak only of the 
effects of the struggle on the French people and kingdom. Among 
these must be noticed the almost complete ruin of the French 
feudal aristocracy, the consequent growth of the power of the 
king, and the awakening of the national consciousness. Speaking 
broadly, we may say that by the close of the war feudalism in 
France was over, and that France had become, partly in spite of 
the war but more largely by reason of it, not only a great monarchy 
but a great nation. 

The Beginnings of French Literature 

508. The Troubadours. The contact of the old Latin speech 
in Gaul with that of the Teutonic invaders gave rise there to two 
very distinct dialects. These were the Langue d’Oc, or Proven- 
gal, the tongue of the south of France and of the adjoining regions 
of Spain and Italy; and the Langue d’O'il, or French proper, the 
language of the North. 1 

1 The terms Langue d’Oc and Langue d’O’tl arose from the use of different words 
for " yes,” which in the tongue of the South was oc, and in that of the North oil. 


354 


GROWTH OF THE NATIONS 


[§509 


About the beginning of the twelfth century, by which time the 
Provencal tongue had become settled and somewhat polished, 
literature in France first began to find a voice in the songs of the 
Troubadours, the poets of the South. The verses of the Trouba¬ 
dours were sung in every land, and to their stimulating influence 
the early poetry of almost every people of Europe is largely 
indebted. 

509 . The Trouveurs. These were the poets of northern France, 
who composed in the Langne d'Oil, or Old French tongue. They 
flourished during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. As the 
poetical literature of the South found worthy patrons in the counts 
of Toulouse, so did that of the North find admiring encouragers in 
the dukes of Normandy. The compositions of the Trouveurs were 
chiefly epic or narrative poems, called romances. Many of them 
gather about three familiar names,— Charlemagne, King Arthur, 
and Alexander the Great,— thus forming what are designated as 
the cycle of Charlemagne, the Arthurian or Armorican cycle, and 
the Alexandrian. 1 

The influence of these French romances upon the springing 
literatures of Europe was most inspiring and helpful. Nor has 
their influence yet ceased. Thus, in English literature not only did 
Chaucer and Spenser and all the early island poets draw inspiration 
from these fountains of Continental song, but the later Tennyson, 
in his Idylls of the King, has illustrated the power over the 
imagination yet possessed by the Arthurian poems of the old 
Trouveurs. 

510 . Froissart’s Chronicles. The first great prose writer in 
French literature was Froissart (b. 1337), whose picturesque¬ 
ness of style and skill as a story-teller have won for him the title 
of the "French Herodotus.” Born, as he was, only a little after 
the opening of the Hundred Years’ War, and knowing personally 
many of the actors in that long struggle, it was fitting that he 
should have become, as he did, the annalist of those stirring times. 


1 These epics represent the three elements in the civilization of western Europe.— 
the German, the Celtic, and the Graeco-Roman. It was the Crusades that brought in 
a fresh relay of tales and legends from the lands of the East. 




The Alhambra: Palace of the Moorish Kings at Granada 

(From a photograph) 







































§ 511 ] 


THE BEGINNINGS OF SPAIN 


355 


III. SPAIN 

511. The Beginnings of Spain. When, in the eighth century, 
the Saracens swept like a wave over Spain, the mountains of 
Asturias, Cantabria, and Navarre, in the north of the peninsula, 
afforded a refuge for the most resolute of the Christian chiefs who 
refused to submit their necks to the Moslem yoke. These brave 
and hardy warriors not only successfully defended the hilly dis¬ 
tricts that formed their asylum but gradually pushed back the 
invaders and regained control of a portion of the fields and cities 
that had been lost. By the opening of the eleventh century several 
little Christian states, among which we must notice especially the 
states of Castile and Aragon because of the prominent j^art they 
were to play in later history, had been established upon, the ground 
thus recovered or always maintained. Castile was at first simply 
"a line of castles” against the Moors, whence its name. 

512. Union of Castile and Aragon ( 1479 ). For several cen¬ 
turies the princes of the little states to which we have referred 
kept up an incessant warfare with their Mohammedan neighbors; 
but, owing to dissensions among themselves, they were unable to 
combine in any effective way for the complete reconquest of their 
ancient possessions. But the marriage, in 1469, of Ferdinand, 
prince of Aragon, to Isabella, princess of Castile, paved the way 
for the virtual union in 1479 of these two leading states into a 
single kingdom. By this happy union the quarrels of these two 
rival principalities were composed, and they were now free to 
employ their united strength in effecting what the Christian princes 
amidst all their contentions had never lost sight of,—the expulsion 
of the Moors from the peninsula. 

513. The Conquest of Granada ( 1492 ). At the time when 
the basis of the Spanish monarchy was laid by the union of Castile 
and Aragon, the Mohammedan possessions, reduced by the con¬ 
stant pressure of the Christian chiefs through eight centuries, 
embraced only a limited dominion in the south of Spain. Here 
the Moors had established a strong, well-compacted state, known 
as the Kingdom of Granada. As soon as Ferdinand and Isabella 


356 


GROWTH OF THE NATIONS 


[§514 


had settled the affairs of their dominions, they began to make 
preparation for the reduction of this last stronghold of the 
Moorish power in the peninsula. 

The Moors made a desperate defense of their little state. The 
struggle lasted for ten years. City after city fell into the hands 
of the Christian knights; finally Granada, pressed by an army of 
seventy thousand, was forced to surrender, and Ferdinand’s silver 
cross and Isabella’s banner of St. James were set up on the towers 
of the Alhambra, the palace of the Moorish kings. 

The fall of Granada holds an important place among the events 
that signalize the latter half of the fifteenth century. It marked 
the end, after an existence of almost eight hundred years, of 



magnificent sarcophagus in the Royal Chapel at Granada) 

Mohammedan rule in the Spanish peninsula, and thus formed an 
offset to the progress of the Moslem power in eastern Europe 
and the loss to the Christian world of Constantinople. 

514 . The Inquisition. A dark shadow is cast upon the reign 
of the illustrious sovereigns Ferdinand and Isabella by the estab¬ 
lishment in Spain of the Inquisition, or Holy Office. This was a 
tribunal the purpose of which was the detection and punishment 
of heresy. The Jews were in this earlier period the chief victims 
of the court. Accompanying the announcement of the sentences of 
the Holy Office there were solemn public ceremonies known as 
the auto-da-fe (act of faith). The assembly was held in some 
church or in the public square, and the following day those con¬ 
demned to death were burned outside the city walls. It is 
particularly to this last act of the drama that the term auto-da-fe 
has come popularly to be applied. 
















§ 515 ] 


BEGINNINGS OF GERMANY 


357 


The Inquisition secured for Spain unity of religious belief, but 
only through suppressing freedom of thought and thereby sapping 
the strength and virility of the Spanish people. Whatever was 
most promising and vigorous was withered and blasted, or was cast 
out. In the year 1492 the Jews were expelled from the country. 
It is estimated that between two and three hundred thousand of 
this race were forced to seek an asylum in other lands. 

515. Death of Ferdinand and of Isabella. Queen Isabella died 
in 1504, and Ferdinand followed her in the year 1516, upon 
which latter event the crown of Spain descended to their grandson, 
Charles, of whom we shall hear much hereafter as Emperor 
Charles V. With his reign the modern history of Spain begins. 


IV. GERMANY 

516. Beginnings of the Kingdom of Germany. The history 
of Germany as a separate kingdom begins with the break-up of 
the empire of Charlemagne, about the middle of the ninth cen¬ 
tury (sect. 406). The part east of the Rhine, with which fragment 
alone we are now specially concerned, was called the Kingdom 
of the Eastern Franks, in distinction from that west of the river, 
which was known as the Kingdom of the Western Franks. This 
Eastern Frankish kingdom was made up of several groups of 
tribes, of which the East Franks were at this time chief. Closely 
allied in race, speech, manners, and social arrangements, all these 
peoples seemed ready to be welded into a close and firm nation. 
That such was not the outcome of the historical development dur¬ 
ing mediaeval times was due largely to the adoption by the German 
emperors of an unfortunate policy respecting a world empire. 
This matter will be explained in the following paragraph. 

517. Consequences to Germany of the Revival of the Empire 
by Otto the Great. We have in another place told how Otto I 
of Germany, in imitation of Charlemagne, restored the Empire 
(sect. 406). The pursuit of this phantom by the German kings 
resulted in the most woeful consequences to Germany. Trying to 
grasp too much, the German rulers seized nothing at all. Attempting 


358 


GROWTH OF THE NATIONS 


[§518 


to be emperors of the world, they failed to become even kings 
of Germany. While they were engaged in outside enterprises their 
home affairs were neglected and the vassal princes of Germany 
succeeded in increasing their power and making themselves prac¬ 
tically independent. Thus the unification of Germany was delayed 
for several hundred years. 

Beginnings of German Literature 

518. The Nibelungenlied. The Nibelungenlied, or the "Lay 
of the Nibelungs,” is the great German mediaeval epic. It was 
reduced to writing about 1200, being a recast of German legends 
and lays dating from the sixth and seventh centuries. The hero 
of the story is Siegfried, the Achilles of Teutonic legend and song. 

519. The Minnesingers. It was during the twelfth and thir¬ 
teenth centuries that the Minnesingers—the poets of love, as 
the word signifies—flourished. They were the "Troubadours of 
Germany.” 

Closely connected with the lyric poetry of the Minnesingers 
is a species of chivalric romances known as court epics. The 
finest of these pieces have for their groundwork the mythic Celtic- 
French legends of the Holy Grail and of the Knights of King 
Arthur’s Round Table. The best representative of these romances 
is the poem of Parsifal} The moral and spiritual teaching of the 
poem is that only through humility, purity, and human sympathy 
can the soul attain perfection. 

V. RUSSIA 

520. The Beginnings of Russia; the Mongol Invasion. The 

state established by the Swedish adventurer Ruric (sect. 409) 
came to be known as Russia, from Ros, the name of the Scandi¬ 
navian settlers. The descendants of Ruric gradually extended 
their authority over neighboring tribes, until nearly all the north¬ 
western Slavs were included in their growing dominions. 

1 By Wolfram of Eschenbach (d. about 1220). 


§ 521 ] 


RUSSIA. ITALY 


359 


In the thirteenth century an overwhelming calamity befell 
Russia. This was the overrunning and conquest of the country 
by the Mongol hordes (sect. 466). The barbarian conquerors 
inflicted the most horrible atrocities upon the unfortunate land, 
and for two hundred and fifty years held the Russian princes in 
a degrading bondage, forcing them to pay homage and tribute. 
This misfortune delayed for centuries the nationalization of the 
Slavic peoples. 

521. Russia freed from the Mongols. It was not until the 
reign of Ivan the Great (1462-1505) that Russia,— now fre¬ 
quently called Muscovy from the fact that it had been reor¬ 
ganized with Moscow as a center,—after a terrible struggle, 
succeeded in freeing itself from the hateful Tatar domination and 
began to assume the character of a well-consolidated monarchy. 
By the end of the Middle Ages Russia had become a great power; 
but she was as yet too closely hemmed in by hostile states to be 
able to make her influence felt in the affairs of Europe. 

VI. ITALY 

522. No National Government. In marked contrast to all 
those countries of which we have thus far spoken, unless we 
except Germany, Italy came to the close of the Middle Ages 
without a national or regular government. And yet the mediaeval 
period did not pass without attempts on the part of patriot spirits 
to effect some sort of union among the different cities and 
states of the peninsula. The most noteworthy of these movements, 
and one which gave assurance that the spark of patriotism which 
was in time to flame into an inextinguishable passion for national 
unity was kindling in the Italian heart, was that headed by the 
patriot-hero Rienzi in the fourteenth century. 

523. Rienzi, Tribune of Rome ( 1347 ). During the greater 
part of the fourteenth century the seat of the Papal See was at 
Avignon, beyond the Alps (sect. 463). Throughout this period of 
the " Babylonian Captivity,” Rome, deprived of her natural 
guardians, was in a state of the greatest confusion. The nobles 


360 GROWTH OF THE NATIONS [§ 523 

terrorized the country about the capital and kept the streets of 
the city itself in constant turmoil with their bitter feuds. 

In the midst of these disorders there appeared from among 
the lowest ranks of the people a deliverer in the person of one 
Nicola di Rienzi. Possessed of considerable talent and great elo¬ 
quence, Rienzi easily incited the people to a revolt against the rule, 
or rather misrule, of the nobles, and succeeded in having himself, 
with the title of Tribune, placed at the head of a new government 
for Rome. He forced the nobles into submission, and in a short 
time effected a most wonderful transformation in the city and 
surrounding country. The best days of republican Rome seemed 
to have been restored. The enthusiasm of the Roman populace 
knew no limits. The remarkable revolution drew the attention 
of all Italy, and of the world beyond the peninsula as well. 

Encouraged by the success that had thus far attended his 
schemes, Rienzi now began to concert measures for the union 
of all the principalities and cities of Italy into a great repub¬ 
lic, with Rome as its capital. He sent ambassadors throughout 
Italy to plead at the courts of the princes and in the council cham¬ 
bers of the municipalities the cause of Italian unity and freedom. 

The splendid dream of Rienzi was shared by other Italian 
patriots besides himself, among whom was the poet Petrarch, 
who was the friend and encourager of the plebeian tribune, and 
who "wished part in the glorious work and in the lofty fame.” 

But the moment for Italy’s unification had not yet come. 
Rienzi proved to be an unworthy leader. His sudden elevation 
and surprising success completely turned his head, and he soon 
began to exhibit the most incredible vanity and weakness. The 
people withdrew from him their support; the Pope excommuni¬ 
cated him as a rebel and heretic; and the nobles rose against him. 
He was finally killed in a sudden uprising of the populace. 

Thus vanished the dream of Rienzi and of Petrarch, of the hero 
and of the poet. Centuries of division, of shameful subjection to 
foreign princes,—French, Spanish, and Austrian,—of wars and 
suffering, were yet before the Italian people ere Rome should 
become the center of a free, orderly, and united Italy. 



Renaissance und Humanismus) 






















































































































































































§ 524 ] 


THE RENAISSANCE IN ITALY 


361 


524. The Renaissance. Though the Middle Ages closed in 
Italy without the rise there of a national government, still before 
the end of the period much had been done to create those common 
ideals and sentiments upon which political unity can alone securely 
repose. Literature and art here performed the part that war did 
in other countries in arousing a national pride and spirit. The 
Renaissance, of which we shall tell in the following chapter, did 
much toward creating among the Italians a common pride in race 
and country ; and thus this splendid literary and artistic enthusiasm 
was the first step in a course of national development which was 
to lead the Italian people, in the fullness of time, to a common 
political life. 

525. The Prince of Machiavelli. Here, in connection with 
Italian Renaissance literature, a word will be in place respecting 
The Prince , by the Florentine historian Machiavelli. In this 
famous book the writer, imbued with a deep patriotic sentiment, 
points out the way in which, in the midst of the existing chaos, 
material and spiritual, Italy might be consolidated into a great 
state, like England or France or Spain. 

The maker of a united Italy, he argues, must be a strong des¬ 
potic prince, who in the work must have no moral scruples what¬ 
ever, but be ready to use all means, however cruel and unjust and 
wicked, which promised to further the end in view. After the 
prince had created a united Italy, then he must rule in righteous¬ 
ness as the representative of the people. 

The way in which Machiavelli instructs the prince to build up 
a state out of the broken-down institutions of the Middle Ages 
was, in truth, the very way in which the despots of his time 
in Italy had actually created their principalities and confirmed 
their power; but that he should have seriously advised anyone to 
adopt their immoral statecraft soon raised against him and his 
teachings, especially in the North, a storm of protest and denun¬ 
ciation which has not yet subsided. Machiavelli found disciples 
enough, however, so that his work had a vast though malign 
influence in molding the political morality of the sixteenth and 
seventeenth centuries. 


GROWTH OF THE NATIONS 


[§526 


362 


526. Savonarola ( 1452 - 1498 ). A further word must here be 
added respecting the Florentine monk and reformer Girolamo 

Savonarola, the last great mediaeval 
forerunner of the religious reformers of 
the sixteenth century. Savonarola was 
at once Roman censor and Hebrew 
prophet. His powerful preaching 
alarmed the conscience of the Floren¬ 
tines. At his suggestion the women 
brought their finery and ornaments, 
and others their beautiful works of 
art, and, piling them in great heaps in 
the streets of Florence, burned them as 
vanities. Savonarola even urged that 
the government of Florence be made a 
theocracy and that Christ be pro¬ 
claimed king. But finally the activity 
of his enemies brought about the reformer’s downfall, and he was 
condemned to death, strangled, his body burned, and the ashes 
thrown into the Arno. 



Fig. 102. Savonarola. (Por¬ 
trait by Fra Bartolommeo ) 


References. (1) Works of a general character : Guizot, F. P. G., History of 
Civilization in Europe, lects. ix and xi. Adams, G. B., Civilization during the * 
Middle Ages, chaps, xiii and xiv. Emerton, E., The Beginnings of Modem Europe. 

(2) National histories: Green, J. R., History of the English People, parts of 
vols. i and ii. Henderson, E. F., History of Germany in the Middle Ages. 
Hassall, A., The drench People. IIume, M. A. S., The Spanish People. The 
" Story of the Nations ” series contains convenient volumes on each of the 
chief European states. 

(3) Biographies and books on special topics: Lowell, F. C foan of Arc. 
Trevelyan, G. M., England in the Age of Wycliffe (the best account of the 
Peasants’Revolt). Poole, R. C., Wycliffe and Movements for Reform. Gasquet, 

F. A., The Great Pestilence. Smith, J. PI., The Troubadours at Home, 2 vols. 
Mrs. Oliphant, The Makers of Florence. Lea, H. C., A History of the Inqui¬ 
sition in the Middle Ages, 3 vols. Prescott, W. H., History of the Reign of 
Ferdinand and Isabella. Irving, W., The Conquest of Granada. Clark, W., 
Savonarola. In the " Heroes of the Nations” series are to be found separate 
biographies of many of the great characters of the period under review. 




CHAPTER LII 


THE RENAISSANCE 

527. The Renaissance defined. By the term Renaissance 
("New Birth”), used in its narrower sense, is meant that new 
enthusiasm for classical literature, learning, and art which sprang 
up in Italy toward the close of the Middle Ages, and which 
during the course of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries gave 
a new culture to Europe. 

528. Inciting Causes of the Movement in Italy. Just as the 
Reformation went forth from Germany and the Political Revolu¬ 
tion from France, so did the Renaissance go forth from Italy. 
One circumstance that doubtless contributed to make Italy the 
birthplace of the Renaissance was the fact that in Italy the break 
between the old and the new civilization was not so complete as it 
was in the other countries of western Europe. The Italians were 
closer in language and in blood to the old Romans than were the 
other new-forming nations. The cities themselves were, in a very 
exact sense, fragments of the old Empire; and everywhere in the 
peninsula the ground was covered with ruins of the old Roman 
builders. The influence which these reminders of a great past 
exerted upon sensitive souls is well illustrated by the biographies 
of such men as Rienzi and Petrarch. 

529. The Two Phases of the Italian Renaissance. The 
Renaissance in Italy consisted of two distinct yet closely related 
phases, namely, the revival of classical literature and learning, and 
the revival of classical art. The literary phase of the movement is 
called " Humanism,” and the promoters of it are known as 
"Humanists,” because of their interest in the study of the classics, 
the literce humaniores , or the "more human letters,” in oppo¬ 
sition to the diviner letters, that is, theology, which made up 
the old education. 


363 


THE RENAISSANCE 


[§ 530 


364 


530. Dante as a Forerunner of the Renaissance. Dante 

Alighieri, "the fame of the Tuscan people,” was born at Florence 
in 1265. He was exiled by the ITorentines in 13 02 ? an( ^ a ^ 
courts of friends learned how hard a thing it is to climb the 

stairway of a patron.” He died at Ravenna in i 3 2I > an< ^ 

tomb there is a place of 

pilgrimage today. 

It was during the years 
of his exile that Dante 
wrote his immortal poem, 
the Commedia as named 
by himself, because of its 
happy ending; the Di- 
vina Commedia, " Divine 
Comedy,” as his admirers 
have entitled it. This 
poem has been called the 
"Epic of Medievalism.” 
It is an epitome of the 
life and thought of the 
Middle Ages. But al¬ 
though Dante viewed the 
world from a standpoint 
which was substantially 
that of the medieval age 
which was passing away, 
still he was in a profound 
sense a prophet of the new age which was approaching,—a fore¬ 
runner of the Renaissance. He was such in his feeling for classi¬ 
cal antiquity. He speaks lovingly of the poet Vergil as his 
teacher and master, the one from whom he took the beautiful 
style that had done him honor. His modern attitude toward 
Graeco-Roman culture is further shown in his free use of the works 
of the classical writers; the illustrative material of his great poem 
is drawn almost as largely from classical as from Hebrew and 
Christian sources. 









§ 531] PETRARCH, FIRST OF THE HUMANISTS 365 

531. Petrarch, the First of the Humanists. But the first and 
greatest of the humanists was Petrarch (1304-1374). To under¬ 
stand Petrarch is to understand the Renaissance. He was the 
first scholar of the mediaeval time who fully realized and appre¬ 
ciated the supreme excellence and beauty of the classical literature 
and its value as a means 
of culture. His enthusi¬ 
asm for the ancient writ¬ 
ers was a sort of worship. 

At great cost of time and 
labor he made a collec¬ 
tion of about two hun¬ 
dred manuscript volumes 
of the classics. Among 
his choicest Latin treas¬ 
ures were Cicero’s letters 
to Atticus, whch he had 
himself discovered in an 
old library and had rev¬ 
erently copied with his 
own hand. He could not 
read Greek, yet he gath¬ 
ered Greek as well as 
Latin manuscripts. He 
had sixteen works of 
Plato and a revered copy 
of Homer sent him from 
Constantinople; and thus, as he himself expressed it, the first 
of poets and the first of philosophers took up their abode with 
him. Often he wrote letters to the old worthies,—Homer, Cicero, 
Vergil, and the rest,— for Petrarch loved thus to record his 
thoughts, and spent much of his time in the recreation of letter 
writing; for recreation, and life itself, letter writing was to him. 

Petrarch’s enthusiasm for the classical authors became conta¬ 
gious. Fathers reproached him for enticing their sons from the 
study of the law to the reading of the classics and the writing of 


















366 


THE RENAISSANCE 


[§532 


Latin verses. But the movement started by Petrarch could not 
be checked. The impulse he imparted to humanistic studies is 
still felt in the world of letters and learning. 

532. The Search for Old Manuscripts. The first concern of 
the disciples of Petrarch was to rescue from threatened oblivion 
what yet remained of the ancient classics. Just as the antiquarians 
of today dig over the mounds of Babylonia for relics of the ancient 
civilization of the East, so did the humanists ransack the libraries 
of the monasteries and cathedrals and search through all the out-of- 
the-way places of Europe for old manuscripts of the classic writers. 

The precious manuscripts were often discovered in a shameful 
state of neglect and in advanced stages of decay. Sometimes they 
were found covered with mold in damp cells or loaded with dust 
in the attics of the monasteries. This late search of the humanists 
for the works of the ancient authors saved to the world many 
precious manuscripts which, a little longer neglected, would have 
been forever lost. 

533. How the Fall of Constantinople aided the Revival. The 

humanistic movement was given a great impulse by the disasters 
which in the fifteenth century befell the Eastern Empire. Con¬ 
stantinople, it will be recalled, was captured by the Ottoman Turks 
in 1453. f° r a half century before that event the threatening 
advance of the barbarians had caused a great migration of Greek 
scholars to the West. These fugitives brought with them many 
valuable manuscripts of the ancient Greek classics still unknown 
to Western scholars. The enthusiasm of the Italians for every¬ 
thing Greek led to the appointment of many of the exiles as 
teachers in their schools and universities. Thus there was now a 
repetition of what took place at Rome in the days of the later 
republic; Italy was conquered a second time by the genius of 
Greece. 

534. The Invention of Printing. During the latter part of the 
fifteenth century the work of the Italian humanists was greatly 
furthered by the happy and timely invention of the art of print¬ 
ing from movable letters, the most important discovery, in the 
estimation of Hallam, recorded in the annals of mankind. 


§ 534] 


THE INVENTION OF PRINTING 


367 


The making of impressions by means of engraved and lettered 
seals or blocks seems to be a device as old as civilization. The 
Chinese have practiced this form of printing from an early time. 
The art, however, appears to have sprung up independently in 
mediaeval Europe. During the first half of the fifteenth century 
many entire books were produced by the block-printing method. 



Fig. 105. The Printing of Books. (From Early Venetian Printing) 

But printing from blocks was slow and costly. The art was 
revolutionized by John Gutenberg (1400-1468), a native of Mainz 
in Germany, through the invention of the movable letters which we 
call type. The oldest book known to have been printed from 
movable letters was a Latin copy of the Bible issued from the 
press of Gutenberg and Faust at Mainz between the years 1454 and 
1456. The art spread rapidly, and before the close of the fifteenth 
century presses were busy in every country of Europe—in the 
city of Venice alone there were about two hundred printing houses, 
among which was the celebrated Aldine Press—multiplying books 
with a rapidity undreamed of by the patient copyists of the 
cloister. 







































































368 


THE RENAISSANCE 


[§535 


535 . The Artistic Revival; the four Master Painters. As 

we have already seen, the new feeling for classical antiquity awak¬ 
ened among the Italians embraced not simply the literary side 
of the Graeco-Roman culture but the artistic side as well. Respect¬ 
ing this latter phase of the Italian Renaissance our space allows 
only a few words. 

In architecture it was the Greek and Roman styles of building 
which were revived. The Roman dome and circular arch, and the 

Greek architrave, or the horizontal 
beam covering columns, windows, 
and doors, now took the place of 
the Gothic pointed arch and be¬ 

came the dominant forms. One of 
the most impressive of Renaissance 
sacred buildings is St. Peter’s at 
Rome. 1 The great dome which 
crowns the building w 7 as the work 
of Michael Angelo. 

But the characteristic art of the 
Italian Renaissance was painting. 2 
The four supreme master painters 
were Leonardo da Vinci (1452- 

1519), whose masterpiece is his 
Last Supper , on the wall of a convent at Milan; Raphael (1483- 
1520), the best beloved of artists, whose Madonnas are counted 
among the world’s treasures; Michael Angelo (1475-1564), whose 
best paintings are -his wonderful frescoes, among them the Last 

Judgment in the Sistine Chapel at Rome; and Titian (1477- 

1576), the Venetian master, celebrated for his portraits, which 
have preserved for us in flesh and blood, so to speak, many of the 
most noteworthy personages of his time. 

1 Other important examples of Renaissance architecture are St. Paul’s Cathedral in 
London, the Louvre in Paris, and the Escorial in Spain. 

2 Yet sculpture was not without eminent representatives. The following names are 
especially noteworthy: Ghiberti (1378-1455), whose genius is shown in his celebrated 
bronze gates of the Baptistery at Florence, of which Michael Angelo said that they 
were worthy to be the gates of paradise; Brunelleschi (1377-1444), Donatello (1386- 
1466), and Michael Angelo (1475-1564). 



/ < 5s. 4 

—^ X % •' 


Fig. 106. Raphael 


§ 536 ] EFFECTS OF THE CLASSICAL REVIVAL 369 

The earlier Italian painters drew their subjects chiefly from 
Christian sources. They literally covered the walls of the churches, 
palaces, and civic buildings of Italy with pictorial representations 
of all the ideas and imaginings of the mediaeval ages respecting 
death, the judgment, heaven, and hell. The later artists, more 
under the influence of the classical revival, mingled freely pagan 
and Christian subjects and motives, and thus became truer repre¬ 
sentatives than their predecessors of the Renaissance movement, 
one important issue of which was to be the blending of pagan 
and Christian culture. 

536. Effects of the Classical Revival on Education and Gen¬ 
eral Culture. The classical revival revolutionized education. 
Under its influence chairs in both the Greek and Latin languages 
and literatures were now established, not only in the new univer¬ 
sities which arose under the inspiration of the New Learning, but 
also in the old ones. The Scholastic method of instruction, of 
which we spoke in a preceding chapter, was gradually superseded 
by this so-called classical system of education, which dominated 
the schools and universities of the world down to the incoming of 
the scientific studies of the present day. 

The classical revival gave to Europe not only faultless literary 
models but also large stores of valuable knowledge. As President 
Woolsey says : " The old civilization contained treasures of perma¬ 
nent value which the world could not spare, which the world will 
never be able or willing to spare. These were taken up into the 
stream of life, and proved true aids to the progress of a culture 
which is gathering in one the beauty and truth of all the ages.” 

References. The literature on the Renaissance is very extensive ; we shall 
suggest only a few titles. Symonds, J. A., The Renaissance in Italy , 7 vols. (the 
best extended history in English). Burckhardt, J., The Civilization of the 
Renaissance in Italy (philosophical and suggestive). Field, L. F., An Introduc¬ 
tion to the Study of the Renaissance. Mrs. Oliphant, Mahers of Florence and 
Makers of Venice. Adams, G. B., Civilization during the Middle Ages , chap. xv. 
Emerton, E., The Beginnings of Modern Etc rope, chap. ix. Grimm, H., The life 
of Michael Angelo, 2 vols. Robinson, J. H., and Rolfe, H. W., Petrarch. 


DIVISION II. THE MODERN AGE 


THIRD PERIOD. THE ERA OF THE 
REFORMATION 

(From the Discovery of America, in 1492, to the Peace of Westphalia, in 1648) 


CHAPTER LIII 

GEOGRAPHICAL DISCOVERIES AND THE BEGINNINGS OF 

MODERN COLONIZATION 

537 . Transition from the Mediaeval to the Modern Age. 
The discovery of America by Columbus, in 1492, is often used 
to mark the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of modern 
times; and this was an event of such transcendent importance— 
the effect upon civilization of the opening up of fresh continents 
was so great—that this honor may very properly be accorded 
the achievement of the Genoese. Yet we must bear in mind 
that no single achievement or event actually marks the end 
of the old order of things and the beginning of the new. The 
finding of the New World did not make the new age; the new 
age discovered the New World. The undertaking of Columbus 
was the natural outcome of that spirit of commercial enterprise 
and scientific curiosity which for centuries—ever since the Cru¬ 
sades— had been gradually expanding the scope of mercantile 
adventure and broadening the horizon of the European world. 
His fortunate expedition was only one of several brilliant nautical 
exploits which distinguished the close of the fifteenth and the 
opening of the sixteenth century. 

This same period was also marked by significant intellectual, 
political, and religious movements, movements of world import, 

370 


§ 538] 


MARITIME EXPLORATIONS 


371 


which indicated that civilization was about to enter—indeed, 
had already entered—upon a new phase of its development. 1 

Closely connected with these movements were three great 
inventions which, like the inventions of our own time, were also 
signs of a new age, and which powerfully helped on the mental 
and social revolutions. Thus the intellectual revival and the 
religious reform were greatly promoted by the new art of printing; 
the kings in their struggle with the nobles were materially aided by 
the use of gunpowder, which rendered useless costly armor and 
fortified castle and helped to replace the feudal levy by a regular 
standing army, the prop and bulwark of the royal power; while 
the great ocean voyages of the times were rendered possible only by 
the improvement of the mariner’s compass, 2 whose trusty guidance 
emboldened the navigator to quit the shore and push out upon 
hitherto untraversed seas. 

538. Maritime Explorations; the Terrors of the Ocean. To 

appreciate the greatness of the achievements of the navigators and 
explorers of the age of geographical discovery, we need to bear 
in mind with what terrors the mediaeval imagination had invested 
the unknown regions of the earth. In the popular conception these 
parts were haunted by demons and dragons and monsters of every 
kind. The lands were shrouded in eternal mists and darkness. 
The seas were filled with awful whirlpools and treacherous currents, 
and shallowed into vast marshes. Out in the Atlantic, so a popular 

1 The truest representative of the intellectual revival on its scientific side was 
Nicholas Copernicus (1473-1543)) who, while Columbus and others were exploring 
the earth’s unknown seas and opening up a new hemisphere for civilization, was 
exploring the heavens and discovering the true system of the universe. He had 
fully matured his theory by the year 1507, but fearing the charge of heresy he did 
not publish the great work embodying his view until thirty-six years later (in 1543). 
It should be carefully noted, however, that the Copernican theory had little influence 
on the thought of the sixteenth century. It was denounced as contrary to Scripture 
by both Catholics and Protestants, and was almost universally rejected for more 
than a hundred years after its first publication. 

2 Jt is a disputed question as to w'hat people should be given the credit of the 
discovery of the properties of the magnetic needle. In a very primitive form the com¬ 
pass was certainly in use among the Chinese as early as the eighth century of our era. 
There is no reliable record of its use by European navigators before about the middle 
of the thirteenth century. It seems most probable that a knowledge of the instrument 
was gained in the East by the crusaders. 


372 


GEOGRAPHICAL DISCOVERIES 


[§ 539 


superstition taught, was the mouth of hell; the red glow cast upon 
the sun at its setting was held to be positive evidence of this. Away 
to the south, under the equator, there was believed to be an im¬ 
passable belt of fire. This was a very persistent idea, and was not 
dispelled until men had actually sailed beyond the equatorial regions. 

539. Portuguese Explorations ; Prince Henry the Navigator. 
Many incentives concurred to urge daring navigators in the later 
mediaeval time to undertake voyages of discovery, but a chief 
motive was a desire to find a water way that should serve as a 
new trade route between Europe and the Indies. 

The first attempts to reach these lands by an all-sea route 
were made by sailors feeling their way down the western coast of 
the African continent. The favorable situation of Portugal upon 
the Atlantic seaboard caused her to become foremost in these 
enterprises. Throughout the fifteenth century Portuguese sailors 
were year after year penetrating a little farther into the myste¬ 
rious tropical seas and uncovering new reaches of the western 
coast of Africa. The soul and inspiration of all this maritime 
enterprise was Prince Henry the Navigator (1394-1460). 

In the year 1442 the Portuguese mariners reached the Gulf 
of Guinea, and here discovered the home of the true negro. 
Some of the ebony-skinned natives were carried to Portugal as 
slaves. This was the beginning of the modern African slave 
trade. The traffic was at first approved by even the most philan¬ 
thropic persons, on the ground that the certain conversion of the 
slaves under Christian masters would more than compensate them 
for their loss of freedom. 

Finally, in i486, Bartholomew Dias succeeded in reaching the 
most southern point of the continent, which, as the possibility of 
reaching India by sea now seemed assured, was later given the 
name of Cape of Good Hope. But at the same time it was a dis¬ 
appointment to the Portuguese to find that Africa extended 
so far to the south. Even should India be reached, the way, it 
was now known, would be long and dangerous. This knowledge 
stimulated efforts to reach the Indies and the "'place of spices” 
by a different and shorter route. 




tJTARTTNT 

























































































§540] 


COLUMBUS 


373 



540. Columbus in Search of a Westward Route to the Indies 
finds the New World ( 1492 ). It was Christopher Columbus, a 
Genoese by birth, who now proposed the bold plan of reaching 
these Eastern lands by sailing westward. The sphericity of the 
earth was a doctrine held by all the really learned men of this 
time. But while agreed 
as to the globular form 
of the earth and as to 
the curvature of both 
the land and the water 
surface, scholars dif¬ 
fered as to the propor¬ 
tion of land and water. 

The common opinion 
among them was that 
by far the greater part 
of the earth’s surface 
was water. Some, how¬ 
ever, believed that three 
fourths or even more 
of its surface was land, 
and that only a nar¬ 
row ocean separated the 
western shores of Eu¬ 
rope from the eastern 
shores of Asia. Colum¬ 
bus held this latter view and also shared with others a miscon¬ 
ception as to the size of the earth, supposing it to be much 
smaller than it really is. Consequently he felt sure that a west¬ 
ward sail of three or four thousand miles would bring him to the 
Indies. Thus his very misconceptions fed his hopes and drew him 
on to his great discovery. 

Everybody knows how Columbus in his endeavors to secure 
a patron for his enterprise met at first with repeated repulse 
and disappointment; how at last he gained the ear of Queen 
Isabella of Castile; how a fleet of three small vessels was fitted 


Fig. 107. Christopher Columbus. (After 
the Capriolo portrait; from the Columbus 
Memorial Volume ) 
























































374 


GEOGRAPHICAL DISCOVERIES 


[§541 


out for the explorer; with what difficulty he kept his crew to their 
undertaking; and how the New World was discovered, or rathei 
rediscovered (sect. 408). 

The return of Columbus to Spain with his vessels loaded with 
the strange animal and vegetable products of the new lands he 
had found, together with several specimens of the inhabitants,— 
a race of men new to Europeans,—produced the profoundest 
sensation among all classes. Curiosity was unbounded. The spirit 
of hazardous enterprise awakened by the surprising discovery led 
to those subsequent undertakings by Castilian adventurers which 
make up the most thrilling pages of Spanish history. 

Columbus made all together four voyages to the new lands; 
still he died in ignorance of the fact that he had really discov¬ 
ered a new world. He supposed the land he had found to be 
some part of the Indies, whence the name West Indies which 
still clings to the islands between North and South America, and 
the term Indians applied to the aborigines. It was not until 
the middle of the sixteenth century that it became fully estab¬ 
lished that a great new double continent, separated from Asia by 
an ocean wider than the Atlantic, had been found. 

541 . The Voyage of Vasco da Gama (1497-1498); the 
Portuguese create a Colonial Empire in the East. V T e have seen 
that by the year i486 the Portuguese navigators, in their search for 
an ocean route to the Indies, had reached the southern point of 
Africa. A little later, only six years after the voyage of Columbus, 
Vasco da Gama, a Portuguese admiral, doubled the Cape, crossed 
the Indian Ocean, and landed on the coast of Malabar. 

The discovery of an unbroken water path to India effected 
most important changes in the trade routes and traffic of the 
world. It made the port of Lisbon the depot of the Eastern 
trade. The merchants of Venice were ruined. The great ware¬ 
houses of Alexandria were left empty. The old route to the 
Indies by way of the Red Sea, which had been from time imme¬ 
morial a main line of communication between the Far East and 
the Mediterranean lands-, now fell into disuse, not to be reopened 
until the construction of the Suez Canal in our own day. 


§ 542] THE PAPAL LINE OF DEMARCATION 


375 


Portugal dotted the coasts of Africa and Asia, the Moluccas 
and other islands of the Pacific archipelago, with fortresses and 
trading stations, and built up in these parts a great commercial 
empire, and, through the extraordinary impulse thus given to the 
enterprise and ambition of her citizens, now entered upon the most 
splendid era of her history. 

542. The Papal Line of Demarcation. Upon the return of 
Columbus from his successful expedition, Pope Alexander VI, 
with a view to adjusting the conflicting claims of Spain and Portu¬ 
gal, issued a bull wherein he drew from pole to pole a line of demar¬ 
cation through the Atlantic one hundred leagues west of the Azores 
(the line was afterwards moved two hundred and seventy leagues 
westward) 1 and awarded to the Spanish sovereigns all pagan lands 
not already in possession of Christian princes, that their subjects 
might find west of this line, and to the Portuguese kings all un¬ 
claimed pagan lands discovered by Portuguese navigators east 
of the designated meridian. 2 By treaty arrangements as well as by 
papal edicts—which were based on the theory of that time that 
the ocean like the land might be appropriated by any power and 
absolute control over it asserted—the Portuguese were prohibited 
from sailing any of the seas thus placed under the dominion of 
Spain or from visiting as traders any of her lands, and the Span¬ 
iards from trespassing upon the water or the lands granted to the 
Portuguese. 

Spain was thus shut out from the use of the Cape route to the 
Indies which had been opened up by Vasco da Gama, and con¬ 
sequently from participation in the coveted spice trade, unless 
perchance a way to the region of spices could be found through 
some opening in the new lands discovered by Columbus. 

1 One result of this change was to throw the eastward projecting part of South 
America (Brazil) to the east of the demarcation line, and thus to make it a Portuguese 
instead of a Spanish possession. 

2 The claim of the popes to the right thus to dispose of pagan lands was believed 
to be supported by such Scripture texts as this: " Ask of me, and I shall give 
thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for 
thy possession” (Psalms ii. 8). Spain and Portugal recognized this claim, but the 
Catholic sovereigns in general only in so far as it coincided with their interests 
to do so. After the Lutheran revolt the Protestant rulers gave no heed to it. 


376 


GEOGRAPHICAL DISCOVERIES 


[§543 


543. The Circumnavigation of the Globe by Magellan 
(1519-1522). Such was the situation of things when Magellan 
laid before the young Emperor Charles V, grandson of the Isabella 
who had given Columbus his commission, his plan of reaching 
the Moluccas, or "Spice Islands,” by a westward voyage. The 
young king looked with favor upon the navigator’s plans and 
placed under his command a fleet of five small vessels. 

Magellan directed his ships in a southwesterly course across 
the Atlantic, hoping to find toward the south a break in the new¬ 
found lands. Near the most southern point of South America he 
found the narrow strait that now bears his name. Through this 
channel the bold sailor pushed his vessels and found himself upon 
a great sea with a blank horizon to the west. From the calm, 
unruffled face of the new ocean, so different from the stormy 
Atlantic, he gave to it the name Pacific. 

After a most adventurous voyage upon the hitherto untraversed 
waters of the new sea, the expedition reached the group of islands 
now known as the Philippines, having been so named in honor 
of Philip II, Charles’ son and his successor on the Spanish throne. 
The year following the discovery of the Philippines a single 
battered ship of the fleet, the Victoria , with eighteen men out 
of the original crews of over two hundred sailors, entered the 
Spanish port of Seville. The globe had for the first time been cir¬ 
cumnavigated. "In the whole history of human undertakings,” 
says Draper, "there is nothing that exceeds, if, indeed, there is 
anything that equals, this voyage of Magellan’s. That of Colum¬ 
bus dwindles away in comparison.” 

Equally does the exploit seem to have impressed the imagi¬ 
nation of Magellan’s own age. The old writer Richard Eden 
(b. about 1521 ) refers to it as "a thing doubtless so strange and 
marvelous that, as the like was never done before, so is it perhaps 
never like to be done again; so far have the navigations of the 
Spaniards excelled the voyage of Jason and the Argonauts to the 
region of Colchis, or all that ever were before”; and a Spanish 
contemporary declares, "Nothing more notable in navigation has 
ever been heard of since the voyage of the patriarch Noah.” 


§ 544 ] 


THE OPENING OF A NEW EPOCH 


377 


The results of the achievement were greater in the intellectual 
realm than in the commercial or the political domain. It revo¬ 
lutionized whole systems of mediaeval theory and belief; it pushed 
aside old narrow geographical ideas; it settled forever and for all 
men the question as to the shape and size of the earth. It brought 
to an end the scholastic controversy concerning the antipodes,— 
that is, whether there were 
men living on the "under” 
side of the earth. The state 
of most men’s minds in re¬ 
gard to this matter had till 
then been just about the 
same as is ours today on 
the question whether or not 
the planets are inhabited. 

544. These Voyages and 
Geographical Discoveries 
ushered in a New Epoch. 

By some geographers civili¬ 
zation is conceived as having 
passed through three stages, 

— the potamic (or river) 
stage, the thalassic (or in¬ 
land sea) stage, and the 
oceanic stage. In the case of 
our own civilization, whose 
beginnings we seek in Egypt 
and Babylonia, these steps 
or stages seem fairly well defined and mark off historical times 
into three great periods, which may be named the River Epoch, 
the Sea Epoch, and the Ocean Epoch. 

The River Epoch was that during which civilization, in its 
highest development, was confined to river valleys, like those of the 
Nile, the Tigris, and the Euphrates. The chief cities of this period, 
as, for instance, Memphis and Thebes in Egypt, Nineveh and 
Babylon in Mesopotamia, arose on the banks of great streams. 



Fig. ioS. "The Antipodes in Deri¬ 
sion.” (From Cosmas, Christian Topog¬ 
raphy ; after Beazley, The Dawn of 
Modern Geography) 

Cosmas lived in the sixth Christian century. In 
the cut here reproduced from his Topography, 
he ridicules the idea of a round earth with 
people on the underside whose heads hang 
downwards. The views of Cosmas as to the 
existence of an antipodal people had defenders 
throughout the mediaeval centuries 



37« 


GEOGRAPHICAL DISCOVERIES 


[§ 545 


Rivers were the pathways of commerce. Boats were small and 

* 

frail, and the art of sea navigation was practically unknown. 

The Sea Epoch was that during which the Mediterranean was 
the main theater of civilization. It was ushered in by the 
Phoenicians, the first skillful sea navigators. From the river banks 
the seats of trade and population were transferred to or near the 
shores of the Mediterranean, and Tyre and Sidon and Carthage 
and Ephesus and Miletus and Byzantium and Corinth and Athens 
and Rome arose and played their parts in the transactions of the 
thalassic age. So largely did the events of this age center in and 
about the Mediterranean that this sea has been aptly called the 
Forum of the ancient world. 

The Ocean Epoch was opened up by the voyages and geo¬ 
graphical discoveries of which we have just been speaking. In 
this period the great oceans have ceased to be barriers between 
the nations and have become instead the natural highways of 
the world’s intercourse and commerce. 1 

545. The Five Early Colonial Empires. One of the most 
important phases of the earlier history of this Ocean Epoch was 
the expansion of the five states on the Atlantic seaboard of Europe 
■—namely, Portugal, Spain, France, the Netherlands, and Eng¬ 
land— each into a great empire, embracing colonies and depend¬ 
encies in two hemispheres. This expansion of Europe into Greater 
Europe holds somewhat such a place in modern history as the 
expansion of Hellas into Greater Hellas and of Rome into Greater 
Rome holds in ancient history. 

In the mutual jealousies and the conflicting interests of these 
growing colonial empires is to be found the ground and cause 
of many of the great wars of modern times since the close of 
the religious wars of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. 
For this reason, although it is our special task to trace the lines 
of the historic development in Europe, we shall from time to 
time call the reader’s attention to these European interests out¬ 
side of the European continent. In the present connection a 

1 The Ocean Epoch may be conceived as embracing two periods, — the Atlantic 
and the Pacific period. The latter is just opening. 



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SCOTLAND 


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EXPLORATIONS AND COLONIES 
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§ 546 ] 


THE CONQUEST OF MEXICO 


379 


few words in regard to Spanish conquests and the beginnings 
of Spanish colonization in the New World will suffice. 

546 . The Conquest of Mexico (1519-1521). The accounts 
of Spanish explorations and conquests in the lands opened up 
by the fortunate voyage of Columbus read more like a romance 
than any other chapter in history. Perhaps the most brilliant 
exploit in which the Spanish cavaliers engaged during this period 
of daring adventure was the conquest of Mexico. Reports of a 
rich and powerful ''Empire” upon the mainland to the west were 
constantly spread among the Spanish colonists who very soon 
after the discovery of the New World settled the islands in the 
Gulf of Mexico. These stories inflamed the imagination of adven¬ 
turous spirits among the settlers, and an expedition, consisting of 
five or six hundred foot soldiers and sixteen horsemen, was organ¬ 
ized and placed under the command of Hernando Cortes for the 
conquest and "conversion” of the heathen nation. The expedi¬ 
tion was successful, and soon the Spaniards were masters of the 
greater part of what now constitutes the republic of Mexico. 

The state that the conquerors destroyed was not an empire, 
as termed by the contemporary Spanish chroniclers, but rather 
a sort of league, or confederacy,—something like the Iroquois 
confederacy in the North,— formed of three Indian tribes. 1 Of 
these the Aztecs were the leading tribe and gave name to the 
confederacy. At the head of the league stood a sachem, or war- 
chief, who bore the name of Montezuma. 

The Mexican Indians had taken some steps in civilization. 
They employed a system of picture writing, and had cities and 
temples. But they were cannibals and offered human victims in 
their sacrifices. They had no knowledge of the horse or the ox, 
or of any other useful domesticated animal except the dog. 2 They 
cultivated maize, but were without wheat, oats, or barley. 

1 Prescott’s description of the Mexican state, especially as to its political organi¬ 
zation, is misleading. For later authorities see bibliography at end of the chapter. 

2 It has been conjectured that the backwardness in civilization of the native races of 
the Americas is to be attributed in part to their lack of useful tame animals. See Fiske, 
The Discovery of America , vol. i, p. 27. Aside from the llama, the alpaca, and the 
turkey, the new world has contributed nothing of essential value to the world s great 
store of domesticated stocks. 


380 


GEOGRAPHICAL DISCOVERIES 


[§ 547 


547 . The Conquest of Peru (1532-1536). Shortly after the 
conquest of the Indians of Mexico the subjugation of the Indians 
of Peru was effected. The civilization of the Peruvians was supe¬ 
rior to that of the Mexicans. It has been compared, as to several 
of its elements, to that of ancient Assyria. Not only were the 
great cities of the empire filled with splendid temples and pal¬ 
aces, but throughout the country were to be seen magnificent 
works of public utility, such as roads, bridges, and aqueducts. 
The government of the Incas, the royal or ruling race, was a 
mild, paternal autocracy. 

Glowing reports of the enormous wealth of the Incas, the 
commonest articles in whose palaces, it was asserted, were of 
solid gold, reached the Spaniards of Darien , 1 and it was not long 
before an expedition, consisting of less than two hundred men, 
was organized for the conquest of the country. The leader of 
the band was Francisco Pizarro, an iron-hearted, cruel, and 
illiterate adventurer. 

Through treachery Pizarro made a prisoner of the Inca, Ata- 
hualpa. The captive offered, as a ransom for his release, to fill 
the room in which he was confined "as high as he could reach” 
with vessels of gold. Pizarro accepted the offer, and the palaces 
and temples throughout the empire were stripped of their golden 
vessels, and the apartment was filled with the precious relics. The 
value of the treasure is estimated at over $ 15 , 000 , 000 . When 
this vast wealth was once under the control of the Spaniards, 
they seized it all, and then treacherously put the Inca to death 
( 1 533) - With the death of Atahualpa the power of the Inca 
dynasty passed away forever. 

548 . Beginnings of Spanish Colonization in the New World. 
Not until more than one hundred years after the discovery of 
the Western Hemisphere by Columbus was there established a 
single permanent English settlement within the limits of what is 
now the United States; but into those parts of the new lands 

1 The first permanent settlement of white men on the mainland of America, and the 
scene of Vasco Nunez de Balboa’s career. It was situated in the easternmost part of 
what is now the Republic of Panama. 


§548] 


SPANISH COLONIZATION 


381 

opened up by Spanish exploration and conquest there began to 
pour at once a tremendous stream of Spanish adventurers and 
colonists in search of fortune and fame. Upon the West India 
Islands, in Mexico, in Central America, all along the Pacific slope 
of the Andes, and everywhere upon the lofty and pleasant table¬ 
lands that had formed the heart of the empire of the Incas, there 
sprang up rapidly cities as centers of mining and agricultural 
industries, of commerce, and of trade. Often, as in the case of 
Mexico, Quito, and Cuzco, these new cities were simply the 
renovated and rebuilt towns of the conquered natives. 

Thus did a Greater Spain grow up in the New World. It was, 
in part, the treasures derived from the gold and silver mines 
of these new possessions that enabled the sovereigns of Spain to 
play the important part they did in the affairs of Europe during 
the century following the discovery of America. 1 

References. Keane, J., The Evolution of Geography, chaps, v-viii. Beazley, 
C. R., P?-ince Henry the A T avigator. There are numerous lives of Columbus: 
Winsor’s, Irving’s, and C. K. Adams’ are recommended. Guillemard, 
F. H. H., The Life of Ferdinand Magellan. Fiske, J., The Discovery of America, 
2 vols. (there is not a chapter here that will fail to interest and charm young 
readers). The Cambridge Modern Histoiy, vol. i, chap, i, " The Age of Discov¬ 
ery ” ; and chap, ii, "The New World.” Bourne, E. G., Essays in Historical 
Criticism , Essay No. 7, " The Demarcation Line of Pope Alexander VI ” ; and 
Spain in America (1450-1580). Prescott, W. IP., Conquest of Mexico and Con¬ 
quest of Peru (should be read with later works). Payne, E. J., History of the 
New World called America , vol. i, pp. 303-364 (for the relation of the native 
civilizations of the Americas to their animal and plant life). 

1 After having robbed the Indians of their wealth in gold and silver, the slow accu¬ 
mulations of centuries, the Spaniards further enriched themselves by the enforced labor 
of the unfortunate natives. Unused to such toil as was exacted of them under the lash of 
worse than Egyptian taskmasters, the Indians wasted away by millions in the mines 
of Mexico and Peru, and upon the sugar plantations of the West Indies. More than 
half of the native population of Peru is thought to have been consumed in the Peruvian 
mines. As a substitute for native labor, negroes were introduced. This was the begin¬ 
ning of the African slave trade in the New World. At the outset the traffic was ap¬ 
proved by a benevolent friar named Las Casas (1474-1566), known as the "Apostle 
of the Indians.” Before his death, however, Las Casas came to recognize the wicked¬ 
ness of negro as well as of Indian slavery, and to regret that he had ever expressed 
approval of the plan of substituting one for the other. See Fiske, The Discovery of 

America , vol. ii, pp. 4 5 4 — 4 5 ^• 


382 


GEOGRAPHICAL DISCOVERIES 


[§ 548 


Suggestion to Teachers — Comparative Study 

In no way, we think, will the teacher be able to give his pupils so 
clear an idea of the character of the sixteenth century as by having 
them make a comparative study of that century and the nineteenth. 
The striking parallels which they will discover between the two 
periods will be sure to suggest to them that "the wonderful nine¬ 
teenth century,” as it is called by Alfred Russel Wallace, like the 
sixteenth, may be a transition period, a period which will be regarded 
by the future historian as we regard the sixteenth,— as the beginning 
of a new age in history. The following will suggest in what realms 


parallels may be sought. 

The Sixteenth Century 

a. The New Learning. Great intel¬ 

lectual activity. 

b. The Reformation. Revision of 

creeds. Relation of the religious 
movement to the Renaissance. 

The unification of great nations,— 
England, France, Spain. 

■d. The expansion of Europe; the 
partition of the New World and 
of southern Asia. The formation 
of colonial empires, — Portu¬ 
guese, Spanish, Dutch, French, 
and English. 

<?. Great geographical and astronom¬ 
ical discoveries (Columbus, Co¬ 
pernicus), which reveal the uni¬ 
verse as infinite in space. Man’s 
conceptions concerning the earth 
and its place in the universe rev¬ 
olutionized. 

f. Great inventions, now first hit 
upon or brought into general use, 
— printing, gunpowder, and the 
mariner’s compass. Political, 
social, and economic revolutions 
caused or promoted by them. 


The Nineteenth Century 

a. The New Sciences. Great intel¬ 

lectual activity. 

b. The New Theology. Disregard of 

creeds. Relation of this move¬ 
ment to the birth of the new 
scientific spirit. 

c. The unification of great nations, — 

Germany, Italy. 

d. The expansion of Europe ; the par¬ 

tition of Africa and of Oceania. 
The formation of new colonial 
empires,—English, P'rench Ger¬ 
man, Belgian, and American. 

e. Great geological and biological dis¬ 

coveries ( Evolution —Lyell, Dar¬ 
win), which reveal the universe 
as infinite in time. Man’s con¬ 
ceptions as to his origin and his 
place in the plan of creation 
revolutionized. 

f. Great inventions, — the steam rail¬ 

way, the ocean steamship, the 
electric telegraph, electric motor, 
etc. Political, social, and eco¬ 
nomic revolutions caused or 
furthered by their introduction. 


CHAPTER LIV 


THE BEGINNINGS OF THE REFORMATION 

549. Introductory Statement. When the Modern Age opened, 
the European peoples were on the eve of a great religious revolution 
known as the Reformation. In the present chapter we shall speak 
of the causes and the beginnings of this revolution in Germany. 

550. Extent of Rome’s Spiritual Authority at the Opening of 
the Sixteenth Century. In a preceding chapter on the Papacy 
it was shown how nearly perfect at one time was the obedience 
of the West not only to the spiritual but also to the temporal 
authority of the Pope. It was also shown how the papal claim 
of the right* to a certain oversight of temporal or governmental 
affairs was practically rejected by the princes and sovereigns of 
Europe as early as the fourteenth century (sect. 461 ). But previ¬ 
ous to the opening of the sixteenth century there had been com¬ 
paratively few—there had been some, like the Albigenses in the 
south of France, the Wyckliffites in England, and the Hussites in 
Bohemia—who denied the supreme and infallible authority of 
the bishops of Rome in matters purely religious. Speaking in a 
very general manner, it would be correct to say that at the close 
of the fifteenth century all the nations of western Europe pro¬ 
fessed the faith of the Roman Catholic Church and yielded 

e 

spiritual obedience to the Papal See. 

551. Causes of the Reformation. We must now seek the 
causes which led one half of the nations of Europe to secede 
from the papal Church. There were various causes. One cause 
was the Renaissance, that great intellectual awakening which 
marked the close of the mediaeval and the opening of the modern 
epoch. The promoters of the New Learning and the upholders 
of the old Scholastic theology came into collision, and this helped 
to prepare the way for the great schism. 

383 


384 BEGINNINGS OF THE REFORMATION [§552 


A second cause of the revolution was the existence in the 
Church of most serious scandals. The necessity of the thorough 
reform of the Church, in both "head and members,” was recog¬ 
nized by all earnest and spiritually minded men. The only differ¬ 
ence of opinion among such was as to the manner in which the 
work of renovation should be effected, whether from within or 
from without, by reform or by revolution. 

A third cause was jealousy of the Papacy on the part of the 
temporal princes. It is true that the claims to temporal suprem¬ 
acy put forward by some of the mediaeval popes were no longer 
maintained ; still there remained a very large field embracing mat¬ 
ters such as appointment or nomination to Church offices, the 
taxation of the clergy and of Church property, questions concern¬ 
ing marriages, wills, and so on, which the popes as the guardians 
of religion claimed the right to regulate or to review. Thus the 
nations were really very far from being independent. As respects 
many matters they were virtually provinces of an ecclesiastical 
world empire centered at Rome. 

But foremost among the proximate causes, and the actual 
occasion of the revolution, was the controversy which arose about 
the doctrine of Indulgences. Hence a word concerning these will 
be necessary to render intelligible the opening episodes of the 
great revolution. 

552. Indulgences. An Indulgence, as understood and defined 
by German theologians of Luther’s time, was the remission of that 
temporal punishment which often remains due on account of sin 
after its guilt has been forgiven. 1 It was granted on the perform¬ 
ance of some work of piety, charity, or mercy, which often included 
an alms to the poor or a gift of money to promote some good 
work, and took effect only upon certain conditions, among which 
was that of confession of sin and sincere repentance. 

Since much of the opposition to Indulgences arose from their 
application to souls in purgatory and to abuses arising in this 
connection, a word of explanation is here also necessary. 

1 By "temporal” punishment is meant penances imposed by the Church and the 
temporary pains of purgatory, as opposed to the eternal punishment of hell. 


§ 553] THE PREACHING OF INDULGENCES 385 

According to Catholic teaching, the other world embraces three 
regions,—hell, purgatory, and heaven. This belief is embodied 
in the great poem of the mediaeval ages, Dante’s Divine Comedy. 
Purgatory is a place or state intermediate between heaven and 
hell, where souls destined for eternal bliss are cleansed through 
suffering. This belief in an intermediate place of punishment 
came to be of historical significance because, according to Catholic 
doctrine, souls in this place of purification can be helped and 
their probation shortened by the prayers and good works of their 
surviving friends in their behalf. Thus Dante on the terraces of 
the Mount of Purification met spirits who told him that their 
allotted time of suffering had been shortened by the mediatorial 
prayers of their friends. The vast endowments of the mediaeval 
monasteries were in large part given that Masses might be said for 
the benefit of the souls of the donors. But not only were interces¬ 
sory prayers counted capable of releasing souls from purgatory; 
the Indulgence also, granted in virtue of the good works or alms 
of friends, operated in the same way to free souls from their 
sufferings. 

Before the time of the Reformation, Indulgences had been 
frequently granted by various pontiffs, with different objects 
in view. Thus, in the time of the Crusades plenary 1 Indulgences 
were offered to all who assumed the cross. Indulgences were 
also often resorted to as a means of raising money for the con¬ 
struction and maintenance of churches, convents, and bridges, 
and for other local undertakings. A great part of the money for 
the building of St. Peter’s at Rome was obtained in this manner. 

553. Tetzel and the Preaching of Indulgences. Leo X, upon 
his election to the papal dignity in 1513 , found the coffers of the 
Church almost empty, and being in pressing need of money to 
carry on his various undertakings, among which was work upon 
St. Pe'ter’s, he had recourse to the common expedient of a 
grant of Indulgences. He delegated the power of dispensing these 
in a great part of Germany to Archbishop Albert of Mainz. As 

1 A plenary or full indulgence remits to a penitent the whole of the temporal 
punishment to which he is liable at the time of receiving the remission. 



BEGINNINGS OF THE REFORMATION [§ 554 



his deputy, Albert employed a Dominican friar by the name of 
John Tetzel. The archbishop was unfortunate in the selection 
of his agent. Tetzel carried out his commission in such a way 
as to give rise to a great scandal. The language that he and 
his subordinates used in exhorting the people to comply with 

the conditions of gaining 
the Indulgences—one of 
which was a donation of 
money—was unseemly 
and exaggerated. 

The result was that 
erroneous views as to 
the effect of Indulgences 
began to spread among 
the ignorant and credu¬ 
lous, many being so far 
misled as to think that 
if they only contributed 
this money to the build¬ 
ing of St. Peters in 
Rome they would be 
exempt from all penalty 
for sins, paying little 
heed to the other con¬ 
ditions, such as sorrow 
for sin and purpose of 
amendment. Hence seri¬ 
ous persons were led to 
declaim against the procedure of the zealous friar. These pro¬ 
tests were the near mutterings of a storm that had long been 
gathering, and that was soon to shake all Western Christendom. 

554. Martin Luther and the Ninety-Five Theses. Foremost 
among those who opposed and denounced the methods used by 
Tetzel was Martin Luther, an Augustinian monk and teacher of 
theology in the University of Wittenberg. This great reformer 
was born in Saxony in 1453 . He was of humble parentage, his 


Fig. 109. Martin Luther. (After the 
portrait by Lucas Cranach, the elder; Llffizi 
Gallery, Florence) 





















§ 555] 


LUTHER’S ADDRESS 


387 


father being a poor miner. Before Tetzel appeared in Germany, 
Luther had already earned a wide reputation for learning and piety. 

When Tetzel began in the neighborhood of Wittenberg the 
preaching of Indulgences in the scandalous manner to which we 
have just alluded, Luther was greatly distressed. He drew up in 
protest ninety-five theses bearing on Indulgences, and nailed them 
upon the door of the castle church at Wittenberg. It was a cus¬ 
tom of those times for a scholar thus to post propositions which he 
was willing to maintain against any and all comers. An examina¬ 
tion of the theses shows that Luther at this time still held the 
generally accepted view both as to purgatory and the validity of 
Indulgences, and that his protest was aimed only at abuses. 

By means of the press the theses were spread broadcast. They 
were eagerly read and commented upon by all classes, particularly 
in Germany. Tetzel issued counter-propositions. The air was 
thick with controversial leaflets. At first Pope Leo had been 
inclined to make light of the whole matter, but at length he felt 
constrained to take decisive measures against Luther. The monk 
was to be silenced by means of a papal bull. 

555. Luther’s "Address to the Christian Nobility of the 
German Nation.” Luther heard that the bull was soon to be 
launched against him. He anticipated its arrival by the issu¬ 
ance to the German nobility of a remarkable address, which has 
been called "The Manifesto of the Reformation.” It was prac¬ 
tically a German declaration of independence of Rome. Luther 
demanded, among other things, that payment to the Pope of 
annates 1 should be forbidden by the princes, nobles, and cities, 
or that they should be wholly abolished; that "no episcopal 
cloak and no confirmation of an appointment should be obtained 
from Rome”; that the Pope should have no power whatever 

1 Annates, or first fruits, were the first year’s revenue, or some portion of the first 
year’s revenue, of a benefice paid to the Pope by a bishop, abbot, or other ecclesiastic 
for the papal confirmation in his office. This was a most important source of revenue 
to the Roman court. The temporal princes naturally regarded these payments by their 
subjects to the Pope with great jealousy, since in this way immense sums of money 
passed out of their dominions and into the Roman treasury. In England the prohibi¬ 
tion of the payment of first fruits to the Pope was one of the earliest steps taken in 
the separation from Rome (see sect. 594). 


388 BEGINNINGS OF THE REFORMATION [§ 556 

over the Emperor, "save to anoint and crown him at the altar”; 
and that the secular clergy (ecclesiastics not bound by monastic 
vows) should be free to marry or not to marry . 1 

556 . Luther burns the Papal Bull (1520). At length a 
copy of the papal bull came into Luther’s hands. Forty-one 
propositions selected from his writings were therein condemned 
either as "heretical” or as "scandalous,” and all persons were for¬ 
bidden to read his books, which were ordered to be burned; and 
he himself, if he did not retract his errors within sixty days, was, 
together with all his adherents, to be regarded as having "in¬ 
curred the penalty due for heresy.” 

Luther now took a startling determination. He resolved to 
burn the papal bull. A fire was kindled outside one of the 
gates of Wittenberg, and in the presence of a great throng of 
doctors, students, and citizens, Luther cast the bull, together with 
some books of his opponents, into the flames. The audacious pro¬ 
ceeding raised a terrible storm, which raged "high as the heavens, 
wide as the earth.” Luther wrote a friend that he believed the 
tempest could never be stilled before the day of judgment. 

557 . The Diet of Worms (1521). Affairs had now assumed 
a threatening aspect. All Germany was in a state of revolt. The 
papal supremacy was imperiled. The papal ban having failed 
to produce any effect, Pope Leo now invoked the aid of the 
recently elected Emperor Charles V in extirpating the spreading 
heresy. He wished Luther to be sent to Rome for trial there. 
Luther’s friends, however, persuaded Charles not to accede to the 
Pope’s request, but to permit Luther to be heard in Germany. 
Accordingly Luther received an imperial summons to appear at 
Worms before an assembly of the princes, nobles, and clergy of 
Germany to be convened for the purpose of deliberating upon the 
affairs of the country, and especially upon matters touching the 
great religious controversy. Such an assembly was called a Diet. 

1 Luther was not at this time ready to release monks from their vows. Gradually, 
however, his views changed and he came to regard the celibacy of the monks 
as opposed to Scripture teachings. In the year 1525, acting upon his maturer views, 
he married Catherine Bora, a former nun. This violation by Luther of his monastic 
vows was made the subject of bitter reproach against him by his enemies. 


§ 558] 


LUTHER AT THE WARTBURG 


389 


Called upon in the imperial assembly to recant his errors, 
Luther replied in substance: "I cannot, I will not, retract any¬ 
thing, unless what I have written shall be shown to be contrary 
to Holy Scripture or to plain reason, for to act against conscience 
is neither safe nor upright.” His closing words were impressive: 
' f I can do no otherwise; here I stand, God help me, Amen.” 

Although some wished to deliver the reformer to the flames, 
the safe-conduct of the Emperor under which he had come to 
the Diet protected him. So Luther was allowed to depart in 
safety, but was followed by the ban of the Empire. 

558 . Luther at the Wartburg (1521-1522). Luther, however, 
had powerful friends, among whom was his own prince, Frederick 
the Wise, Elector of Saxony. Solicitous for the safety of the 
reformer, the prince caused him to be seized on his way from 
the Diet by a company of masked horsemen, who carried him to 
the castle of the Wartburg, where he was kept about a year, his 
retreat being known only to a few friends. 

During this period of forced retirement from the world Luther 
was busy writing pamphlets and translating the Bible. 1 Appeal 
had been made to the Scriptures,—" Prove it from the Scrip¬ 
tures,” was the constant challenge of the reformers to their op¬ 
ponents,—hence it was necessary that the Scriptures should be 
accessible in a language understood by all. In giving Germany 
this translation of the Bible, Luther rendered some such service 
to the German tongue, by fixing its literary forms, as Dante ren¬ 
dered to the Italian through his Divine Comedy. 

559 . The Peasants’ War (1524-1525). A little while after the 
meeting of the Diet of Worms, the peasants of Swabia and Fran¬ 
conia, stung to madness by the oppressions of their feudal lords, 
and stirred by the incendiary preaching of certain of their proph¬ 
ets, rose in revolt against the nobles and the priests,—against all 
in authority. Castles and monasteries were sacked and burned 
and horrible outrages were committed. The rebellion was finally 
crushed, but not until a hundred thousand lives had been sacrificed, 

1 There had been translations of the Bible into German before this, but the editions 
had been small and the circulation limited. 


390 BEGINNINGS OF THE REFORMATION [§ 560 

a large part of South Germany devastated, and great reproach 
cast upon the reformers, whose teachings were held by their 
enemies to be the whole cause of the ferment. 

560. The Secularization of Church Property. But in spite 
of all these discrediting movements the reform made rapid prog¬ 
ress. Nothing contributed more to win over the lay princes to the 
views of Luther than his recommendation that the monasteries 
should be suppressed and their property confiscated and devoted 
to the maintenance of churches, schools, and charities . 1 

The lay rulers were quick to act upon this suggestion and to 
go far beyond it. Within a very few years after the appearance 
of Luther’s address to the German nobility and another treatise 
of his on monastic vows, wherein he pronounced such vows to be 
contrary to true Christian principles, there were confiscations of 
ecclesiastical property in all the German states that had become 
Protestant. 

In Sweden, in which country the doctrines of Luther gained 
an early foothold, almost all the property of the old Church 
was, by an act of the National Diet, given into the hands of the 
king, Gustavus Vasa ( 1524 ). This wealth contributed greatly to 
enhance the power and prestige of the Swedish monarchy. 

In England, King Henry VIII, under circumstances which we 
shall relate in another chapter, suppressed the monasteries and 
diverted to secular uses the greater part of their wealth. 

But the classical instance of the secularizing of Church prop¬ 
erty during this period is afforded by the case of the Teutonic 
Knights (sect. 453 ). At the beginning of the Protestant revolt 
these monk knights ruled over from two to three million subjects. 
When the reform movement began to spread over Germany the 
Grand Master of the Order 2 turned Protestant and converted the 
domains of the fraternity into an hereditary principality under 
the name of the Duchy of Prussia ( 1525 ). The knights married 
and became nobles. Thus was created out of ecclesiastical lands 
a most important secular state. 

1 All such taking over of Church property by the State was called " secularization.” 

2 Albert (1490-1568), head of a branch of the family of Hohenzollern. 


§ 561 ] REFORMERS ARE CALLED PROTESTANTS 391 

561. The Reformers are called Protestants. The rapid 
progress of the revolution alarmed the upholders of the ancient 
Church. In the year 1529 there gathered an assembly (the 
Second Diet of Spires) to consider the matter. The action of 
the Catholic majority of this body took away from the Protes¬ 
tant princes and cities the right they had hitherto enjoyed of 
determining what form of religion should be followed in their 
domains, and forbade the teaching of certain of the new doctrines 
until a Church council should have pronounced authoritatively 
upon them. 

Six of the German princes and a large number of the cities of 
the Empire issued a formal protest against the action of the Diet, 
denying the power or right of a majority to bind the minority in 
matters of religion and conscience. Because of this protest , the 
reformers from this time began to be known as Protestants. 

562. The Catholic Reaction; its Causes and Agents. Even 
before the death of Luther, which occurred in the year 1546, 1 
the Reformation had gained a strong foothold in most of the 
countries of Western Christendom, save in Spain and Italy, and 
even in these parts the new doctrines had made some progress. 
But several causes now conspired to check the hitherto trium¬ 
phant advance of Protestantism and to enable the old Church to 
regain much of the ground that had been lost. Chief among 
these were the divisions among the Protestants, the Counter- 
Reform in the Catholic Church, the increased activity of the 
Inquisition, the rise of the Society of the Jesuits, and Spain’s 
zealous championship of Catholicism. 

563. Divisions among the Protestants. Early in their con¬ 
test with the Roman See the Protestants became divided into 
several mutually hostile sects, the most important of which were 
the Lutherans and the Calvinists. The creed of the Lutherans 
came to prevail very generally in North Germany, and was 

1 After the death of Luther the leadership of the Reformation in Germany fell 
to Philip Melanchthon (1497-1560), one of Luther’s friends and fellow-workers. 
Melanchthon’s disposition was exactly the opposite of Luther’s. He often reproved 
Luther for his indiscretion and vehemence, and was constantly laboring to effect, 
through mutual concessions, a reconciliation between the Catholics and Protestants. 


392 


BEGINNINGS OF THE REFORMATION [§ 564 


received in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It also spread into the 
Netherlands, but there it was soon overshadowed by Calvinism. 
Of all the Protestant sects the Lutherans made the least departure 
from the Roman Catholic Church. 

The Calvinists were followers of John Calvin (1509-1564), a 
Frenchman by birth, who, forced to flee from France on account 
of persecution, found a refuge at Geneva, 1 which city he made 
the center of a movement rivaling in extent and historical im¬ 
portance that having its point of departure at Wittenberg. We 
can best remember the wide range of Calvinism and its remarkable 
influence upon the history of the sixteenth and seventeenth 
centuries by keeping in mind that the French Huguenots, the 
Scotch Covenanters, the Dutch Netherlander (in large part), the 
English Puritans, and the Pilgrim Fathers were all Calvinists. 

These great Protestant communions finally broke up into a 
large number of denominations or churches, each holding to 
some minor point of doctrine or adhering to some form of wor¬ 
ship disregarded by the others, yet all agreeing in the central 
doctrine of the Reformation, "justification by faith alone.” 

Now, the contentions between these different sects were sharp 
and bitter. The influence of these sectarian divisions upon the 
progress of the reform movement was most disastrous. They 
weakened the Protestant party in the presence of a united and 
vigilant enemy. They afforded the Catholics a strong and effective 
argument against the entire movement as tending to uncertainty 
and discord. 

564. The Catholic Counter-Reform; the Council of Trent 
( 1545 - 1563 ) ; Carlo Borromeo. As we have seen, it was the 
existence of acknowledged evils and scandals in the old Church 
that had contributed to undermine its authority and to weaken 
its hold upon the reverence and the consciences of men. It was 

1 Under the influence of Calvin, Geneva became a sort of theocratic state, with 
the reformer as a Protestant pope. The laws and regulations of this little city-state 
recall those of the later Puritan commonwealth in England. Calvinism was everywhere 
the same. It was a sort of revival of the theocracy of the ancient Hebrews. Calvin has 
been well called the Prophet of the Old Covenant.” His work entitled Institutes of the 
Christian Religion is a masterly exposition of Calvinistic theology. 


§ 564 ] 


THE CATHOLIC COUNTER-REFORM 


393 

the correction of these evils and the removal of these scandals 
which did much to restore its lost influence and authority. 

This reform, which even before the rise of Protestantism had 
already begun within the Roman Catholic Church, was carried 
out in great measure by the memorable Council of Trent (1545- 
1563). This body, the most important Church assembly since 
that of Nicaea, a.d. 325, with the voice of authority passed upon 
all the points that had been raised by the reformers. It declared 
the traditions of the Church to be of equal authority with the 
Bible; it reasserted the divine character of the Papacy; it con¬ 
demned as heresy the Lutheran doctrine of justification by faith 
alone. It made everything so clear that no one, not even a way¬ 
faring man, need err either in doctrine or in duty. It also de¬ 
manded that the lives of all priests and bishops should be an 
exemplification of Christian purity and morality. 

These measures of the council helped greatly to check the 
Protestant movement. The correction of the abuses that had had 
so much to do in causing the great schism smoothed the way for 
the return to the ancient Church of thousands who had become 
alarmed at the dangers into which society seemed to drift when 
once it cast loose from anchorage in the safe harbor of tradition 
and authority. 

The spirit in which the Council of Trent had done its work 
finds illustration in the exalted character and devoted life of 
the Italian reformer, Carlo Borromeo (1538-1584). In him the 
reforming spirit of the great council was incarnate. He became 
Archbishop of Milan, and took as his model the holy Ambrose, 
who, twelve centuries before, in the corrupt times of the failing 
Roman Empire, had won sainthood in that same see (sect. 324). 
He renovated and restored the desecrated and deserted churches, 
reformed the lax and dissolute lives of the clergy, restored disci¬ 
pline in the religious orders, and established schools and colleges. 
It was due largely to his zealous labors and to the happy conta¬ 
gion of his holy example that a new spiritual life was created in 
Milan and the regions round about, that popular veneration for 
the ancient Church was again evoked, that the progress of 


394 


BEGINNINGS OF THE REFORMATION [§ 565 


Protestantism in Italy was stayed, that the wavering were held 
firm in their allegiance to the Papacy, and that many who had 
already been led away by the Protestant ''heresy” were brought 
back to the ancient fold. 

565 . The Inquisition. The Roman Catholic Church, having 
purified itself and defined clearly its articles of faith, demanded 
of all a more implicit obedience than hitherto. The Inquisition 
now assumed new activity, and heresy was sternly dealt with. 
The tribunal was assisted in the execution of its sentences by 
the secular authorities in all the Romance countries, but out¬ 
side of these it was not generally recognized by the temporal 
princes, though it did succeed in establishing itself for a time in 
the Netherlands and in some parts of Germany. Death, usually 
by burning, and loss of property were the penalty of obstinate 
heresy. Without doubt the Inquisition did much to check the 
advance of the Reformation in southern Europe, aiding especially 
in holding Italy and Spain obedient to the ancient Church. 

At this point, in connection with the persecutions of the In¬ 
quisition, we should not fail to recall that in the sixteenth century 
a refusal to conform to the established worship was regarded by 
the great majority of Protestants, as well as of Catholics, as a 
species of treason against society, and was dealt with accordingly. 
Thus, at Geneva we find Calvin bending all his energies to the 
trial and execution of Servetus, because he published views that 
the Calvinists thought heretical; at Rome we see Giordano Bruno 
burned at the stake because of his disbelief in certain Roman 
Catholic doctrines; and in England we see the Anglican Protes¬ 
tants waging the most cruel, bitter, and persistent persecutions 
not only against the Catholics but also against all Protestants 
who refused to conform to the Established Church. 

566 . The Society of the Jesuits; Ignatius of Loyola; 
Francis Xavier. The Society of the Jesuits, or the Company 
of Jesus, was another most powerful auxiliary concerned in the 
reestablishment of the threatened authority of the Papal See. 
The founder of the fraternity was Ignatius of Loyola (1491- 
t 556), a native of Spain. Ignatius was the embodiment of 


§ 566] 


395 


THE SOCIETY OF THE JESUITS 

Spanish religious zeal. His object was to form a society the 
devotion and energy of whose members should meet the ardor 
and activity of the reformers. The new society was instituted by 
a papal bull in 1540. 

It was particularly as educators that the Jesuits made their in¬ 
fluence felt upon society. Their aim here was to fill the world 
with schools and colleges, just as a conquered country might be 
occupied with military garrisons. 

Ignatius left behind him a full 
hundred colleges and seminaries ; 
within a century and a half after 
his death the Order had founded 
over seven hundred. 

As the well-disciplined and un¬ 
compromising foes of the Protes¬ 
tants, now divided into many and 
often hostile sects, the Jesuits 
did so much to bring about a 
reaction that Macaulay declares, 

"The history of the Jesuits is 
the history of the Catholic Re- Fig. iio. Ignatius of Loyola 
action.” It was largely through (After a painting by Rubens ) 
their direct or indirect agency 

that Hungary, Poland, Bohemia, and South Germany, after they 
had been invaded by Protestantism and in a greater or less 
degree drawn away from the old faith, were won back to the 
Roman Catholic Church and again bound by ties stronger than 
ever to the Papacy. By the end of the sixteenth century this 
work of recovery had been in the main accomplished. This re¬ 
gaining of these debatable countries for Catholicism constitutes 
one of the most important matters in the religious history of 
Europe. 

And not only did the labors of the Jesuits contribute thus- 
greatly to the retrieving of the papal fortunes in Europe, but they 
were also instrumental in extending the authority and spreading 
the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church into all. other parts 






396 BEGINNINGS OF THE REFORMATION [§ 567 

of the world. Most distinguished of all the missionaries of the 
society to pagan lands was the saintly Francis Xavier (1506- 
1552), known as the "Apostle of the Indies.” 

567 . Spain’s Zealous Championship of Catholicism. Just as 
England became the champion and the bulwark of Protestantism, 
so did Spain become the champion and the bulwark of .Catholi¬ 
cism. The Spanish sovereigns, as we shall see, constituted them¬ 
selves the guardians of Catholic orthodoxy, and put forth all their 
strength to uproot the reformed faith not only in their own 
domains but also in other lands. Their strenuous efforts to 
reestablish the old religious unity caused them to become most 
important instruments of the Catholic Restoration. 

568 . The Hundred Years of Religious Wars. The action 
taken by the Council of Trent made impossible a reconciliation 
between the two parties. The middle of the sixteenth century 
had not yet been reached before the increasing bitterness of their 
controversy led to an appeal to force. Then followed a hundred 
years of religious wars. During this time neither party laid aside 
the sword. In this protracted combat Protestantism was fighting 
desperately for the right to live; the Papacy was fighting to put 
down secession, to force the seceded states back into the old 
ecclesiastical empire, to restore the broken unity of Christendom. 

In the chapters immediately following this we shall trace in 
broad outline the vicissitudes in fortune of the rival creeds 
in the leading European countries. To what we have here said 
concerning the beginnings of the Revolution we will in closing 
sections add only a few words touching its results. 

569 . Political Results of the Reformation: the Separation 
from Rome and what this meant. The outcome of the Prot¬ 
estant Revolution as a revolution was, very broadly stated, the 
separation from the Roman Catholic Church of North Germany, 
Denmark, Norway, Sweden, England, and Scotland, along with 
parts of Switzerland and of the Netherlands,—in the main, 
nations predominantly Teutonic in race or in language. The 
great Romance nations, namely, France, Spain, and Italy, to¬ 
gether with South Germany, Poland, Bohemia, Hungary, and 


§ 570] RESULTS OF THE REFORM MOVEMENT 


397 

Ireland, adhered to the ancient Church, or, if for a period shaken 
in their loyalty, ultimately returned to their old allegiance. 

What this separation from Rome meant in the political realm 
is well stated by the historian Seebohm: "It was the claiming by 
the civil power in each nation of those rights which the Pope had 
hitherto claimed within it as head of the great ecclesiastical em¬ 
pire. The clergy and monks had hitherto been regarded more or 
less as foreigners,— that is, as subjects of the Pope’s ecclesiastical 
empire. Where there was a revolt from Rome the allegiance of 
these persons to the Pope was annulled, and the civil power 
claimed as full a sovereignty over them as it had over its lay 
subjects. Matters relating to marriage and wills still for the 
most part remained under ecclesiastical jurisdiction, but then, as 
the ecclesiastical courts themselves became national -courts and 
ceased to be Roman or papal, all these matters came under the 
control of the civil power.” 

In a word, the secession meant that the nations thus breaking 
the ties which formerly united them to Rome now became— 
what they were not during mediaeval times—absolutely inde¬ 
pendent or sovereign powers, self-centered and self-governed in 
their ecclesiastical as well as in their political life. 

570. Religious and Moral Results of the Reform Movement. 
From a spiritual or religious point of view, this severance by the 
Northern nations of the bonds that formerly united them to the 
ecclesiastical empire of Rome meant a transfer of their allegiance 
from the Church to the Bible. The decrees of popes and the 
decisions of Church councils were no longer to be regarded as 
having divine and binding force; the Scriptures alone were to 
be held as possessing divine and infallible authority, and, the¬ 
oretically, this rule and standard of faith and practice each 
individual was to interpret for himself. 

Another important result of the Reformation was a certain 
impulse given the world toward religious toleration. It is true 
that the reformers, in spite of their insistence for themselves 
upon the right of private judgment in religious matters, did not 
in practice concede this right to others, and when they had the 


398 BEGINNINGS OF THE REFORMATION [§570 

power became, very inconsistently, most zealous persecutors. 
They believed with the Catholics that heresy should be punished, 
only they defined heresy differently. Nevertheless, the proc¬ 
lamation of the principle of private judgment in religious affairs, 
through a logical necessity, came ultimately to exert a favorable 
influence upon toleration; for you cannot accord to a man the 
right to form his own judgment respecting a matter and at the 
same time affix a penalty to his reaching any save a prescribed 
•conclusion. Consequently, among the various agencies, such as 
modern science, the advance of the world in general intelligence, 
and closer intercourse among the nations, which during the past 
three centuries have brought in the beneficent principle of reli¬ 
gious toleration, the Reformation of the sixteenth century must 
Be given a prominent place. 

References. Beard, C., Martin Luther and the Reformation in Germany. 
Kostlin, J., Life of Luther. Emerton, E., Desiderius Erasmus. For a wider 
•survey, from the Protestant point of view, of the reform movement: Fisher, 
'G. P., The Reformation ; Hausser, L., The Period of the Reformation; and 
Seeboh.M, F., The Era of the Protestant Revolution. IIULME, E. M., The Renais¬ 
sance , the Protestant Revolution , and the Catholic Reformation in Continental 
Europe (Rev. Ed.), chaps, x-xxx. For the history of the movement from the 
Catholic side: Spalding, M. J., The History of the Protestant Reformation. 
The Cambridge Modern History , vol. i, chap, xix, and vol. ii, chaps, iv-viii. 
Robinson, J. IE, An Introduction to the History of Western Europe , chaps. 
•XXV and xxvi. Froude, J. A., Lectures on the Council.of Trent. Hughes, T., 
Loyola and the Educational System of the Jesuits. SYMONDS, J. A., The Catholic 
Reaction , vol. i. 


CHAPTER LV 


THE ASCENDANCY OF SPAIN; HER RELATION TO THE 

CATHOLIC REACTION 

I. REIGN OF THE EMPEROR CHARLES V (1519-1556) 

571. Charles’ Dominions. In the year 1500 there was born in 
the city of Ghent, in the Netherlands, a prince who was destined 
to play a great part in the history of the sixteenth century. This 
was Charles, son of Philip the Handsome, Archduke of Austria, 
and Joanna, daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain,— 
later to be known to fame as Emperor Charles V. 

Charles was "the converging point and heir of four great royal 
lines, which had become united by a series of happy matrimonial 
alliances.” These were the houses of Austria, Burgundy, Castile, 
and Aragon. Before Charles had completed his nineteenth year 
there were heaped upon his head, through the removal by death 
of his ancestors, the crowns of the four dynasties. 

But great as was the number of the hereditary crowns of the 
young prince, there was straightway added to them (in 1519 ), by 
the vote of the Electors of Germany, the crown of the Holy Roman 
Empire. After this election he was known as Emperor Charles V ; 
hitherto he had borne the title of Carlos I of Spain. 

572. The Balance of Power is disturbed by Spain. During a 
great part of the modern age a doctrine known as " the balance of 
power” has lain at the bottom of much European diplomacy. It 
has been the concern of statesmen to see to it that no one of the 
nations should acquire an overweight of power or influence, and 
thereby endanger the independence of the others. But in spite 
of this vigilance there has been a constant tendency to a disturb¬ 
ance of the equilibrium of the European system of states through 
the overgrowth of this or that member of it. 

399 


400 • 


THE ASCENDANCY OF SPAIN 


[§573 


Now in the sixteenth century it was the overshadowing great¬ 
ness of Spain that aroused the fears of her neighbors and very 
largely determined the policies and actions of these states. Here 
we have the key to much of the political history of the reign of 
the Emperor Charles V and that of his son and successor on 
the Spanish throne, Philip II. 

573. Charles and the Reformation. But important as is the 
political side of Charles’ reign, it is his relation to the Lutheran 

movement which constitutes for us 
the significant feature of his life 
and work. Fortunately for the 
Catholic Church, the young Em¬ 
peror placed himself at the head 
of the Catholic party, and not only 
during his own reign employed the 
strength and resources of his em¬ 
pire in extirpating the heresy of the 
reformers but also transmitted this 
policy to his successors upon the 
Spanish throne. 

574. His two Chief Enemies. 

Had Charles been free from the 
outset to devote all his energies to 
the work of suppressing the Lu¬ 
theran heresy, it is difficult to see 
what could have saved the reform doctrines within his dominions 
from extirpation. But, fortunately for the cause of the re¬ 
formers, Charles’ attention, during much of his reign, was drawn 
away from the consideration of Church questions by the attacks 
upon his dominions of two of the most powerful monarchs of the 
times, Francis I ( 1 5 1 5~ 1 547) of France, and Solyman the Mag¬ 
nificent ( 1520 - 1566 ), Sultan of 1 urkey. Time and again, when 
Charles was inclined to proceed to severe measures against the 
Protestant princes of Germany, the threatening movements of one 
0 ! both of these enemies forced him to postpone his proposed 
crusade against heretics for a campaign against foreign foes. 



Fig. iii. Emperor Charles V 
(After a painting by Holbein) 



























































































§ 575] WARS BETWEEN CHARLES AND FRANCIS 


401 


575 . Wars between Charles and Francis (1521-1544); their 
Results. Francis I was the rival of Charles in the contest for the 
imperial dignity. When the Electors of Germany conferred the 
title upon the Spanish monarch, Francis was sorely disappointed, 
and during all the remainder of his reign kept up a jealous and 
almost incessant warfare with Charles, whose enormous posses¬ 
sions now nearly surrounded the French kingdom. 1 Italy was the 
field of much of the fighting, as the securing of dominion in that 
peninsula was a chief aim of each of the rivals. The direct and 
indirect consequences of the protracted combat between Francis 
and Charles were many and far-reaching. First, Protestantism 
was given time to intrench itself so firmly in North Germany and 
in other countries as to render ineffectual all later efforts for 
its destruction. 

Second, by preventing united action on the part of the Christian 
princes, these quarrels were the occasion of the severe losses 
which Christendom during this period suffered at the hands of the 
Ottoman Turks. Hungary was ravaged with fire and sword, 
Rhodes was captured, and the Mediterranean made almost a 
Turkish lake. 

Third, these wars, having Italy as their chief theater, were 
a frightful scourge to that land and blighted there all the fair 
promises of the Renaissance; but at the same time the storm 
wafted the precious seeds of the revived arts and letters beyond 
the mountains into France and other Northern lands. The French- 
Renaissance dates from these Italian wars. 

576 . Persecution of the Waldenses by Francis (1545). The 
cessation of the wars between Francis and Charles left each free 
to give his attention to his heretical subjects. And both had work 


1 Before entering upon war with Charles, Francis cast about for an ally. The young 
king of England, Henry VIII, seemed the most desirable friend. He accordingly 
invited Henry to a conference in France, at which was to be considered the matter of 
an alliance against the Emperor. The two kings, each attended by a magnificent train 
of courtiers, met near Calais (1520). The meeting is known in history as "The Field of 
the Cloth of Gold,” because of the prodigal richness of the costumes and appointments 
of the chiefs and their attendants. " Many,”says a contemporary writer, "bore thither 
their mills, their forests, and their meadows on their backs.” Nothing came of the 
interview, and Charles finally won Henry over to his side. 


402 


THE ASCENDANCY OF SPAIN 


[§ 577 


enough on hand; for while the king and the Emperor had been 
fighting each other, the doctrines of the reformers had been spread¬ 
ing rapidly in all directions and among all classes. 

The severest blow dealt the heretics of his kingdom by Francis 
fell upon the Vaudois, or Waldenses, the inhabitants of a number 
of hamlets in the Alpine regions of Piedmont and Provence. These 
people during the later mediaeval time had fallen into what the 
Church regarded as heretical ways, and just now they were min¬ 
gling with their own heresies those of the Protestant reformers. 
Thousands were put to death by the sword, and thousands more 
were burned at the stake. At a later time other persecutions fell 
upon them, until finally only a miserable remnant, who found an 
asylum among the mountains, were left to hand down their faith 
to modern times. 

577 . Charles’ Wars with the Protestant German Princes. 
Charles, on his part, turned his attention to the reformers in Ger¬ 
many. Inspired by religious motives and convictions, and appre¬ 
hensive, further, of the effect upon his authority in Germany of 
the growth there of such an empire within an empire as the 
Protestant princes and free cities were becoming, he resolved to 
crush the reform movement by force. 

Accordingly, in the very year that Luther died ( 1546 ), the 
Emperor, aided by the German Catholics, attacked the Protestant 
princes. He was at first successful, but in the end the war proved 
the most disastrous and humiliating to him of any in which he 
had engaged. Severe defeats of his armies finally constrained him 
to give up his undertaking to make all his German subjects think 
alike in matters of religion. 

578 . The Religious Peace of Augsburg (1555). In the cele¬ 
brated Diet of Augsburg, convened in 1555 to compose the dis¬ 
tracted affairs of the German states, it was arranged and agreed 
that every prince should be allowed to choose between the Cath¬ 
olic religion and the Augsburg Confession , 1 and should have the 

1 The Augsburg Confession was the formula of belief of the adherents of Luther. 
It was drawn up by the scholar Melanchthon and laid before the Imperial Diet assembled 
at Augsburg by Charles V in 1530. It formed the basis of the Lutheran Church. 


§ 579] 


CHARLES’ ABDICATION 


403 


right to make his religion the religion of his people. This, it will 
be noted, was simply toleration as concerns princes or govern¬ 
ments. The subject must follow his prince, and think and believe 
as he thought and believed. 

To this article, however, the Diet made one important excep¬ 
tion. The Catholics insisted that ecclesiastical princes, that is, 
bishops and abbots, on becoming Protestants, should surrender to 
the Roman Catholic Church their offices and revenues; and this 
important clause, under the name of the Ecclesiastical Reservation , 
was finally made a part of the treaty. It is important that this 
Treaty of Augsburg should be kept carefully in mind, for the 
reason that it was through violations of its articles by both parties 
that the way was paved for the terrible Thirty Years’ War. 

579. Charles’ Abdication. While the Diet of Augsburg was 
arranging the religious peace the Emperor Charles was enacting the 
part of a second Diocletian. There had long been forming in his 
mind the purpose of spending his last days in monastic seclusion. 
The disappointing issue of his contest with the Protestant princes 
of Germany, the weight of advancing years, together with menac¬ 
ing troubles which began "to thicken like dark clouds about the 
evening of his reign,” now led the Emperor to carry this resolu¬ 
tion into effect. Accordingly he abdicated in favor of his son 
Philip the crown of the Netherlands (1555) and that of Spain 
and its colonies (1556), and then retired to the monastery of 
Yuste, situated in a secluded region in western Spain. 

There is a tradition which tells how Charles, after vainly en¬ 
deavoring to make some clocks that he had about him at Yuste 
run together, made the following reflection: "How foolish I have 
been to think I could make all men believe alike about religion, 
when here I cannot make even two clocks keep the same time.” 

This story is probably mythical. Charles seems never to have 
doubted either the practicability or the policy of securing uni¬ 
formity of belief by force. While in retirement at Yuste he 
expressed the deepest regret that he did not burn Luther at 
Worms. He was constantly urging Philip to use greater severity 
in dealing with his heretic subjects. 


404 


THE ASCENDANCY OF SPAIN 


[§ 5SO 


II. SPAIN UNDER PHILIP II (1556-1598) 

580. Philip’s Character and his Principles of Government. 

Philip, unlike his father, was a representative Spaniard. He em¬ 
bodied in himself the traits, ideals, and aspirations of the Spanish 
race, just as Luther typified and embodied those of the German 
race. Like the true Spaniard, Philip possessed a deeply religious 
nature. One of his instruments of government was the Inquisi¬ 
tion. He employed it in the suppression of heresy, not simply 
because he was a sincere Catholic and believed that heresy was 
willful sin and should be sternly dealt with, but also because 
heresy, in his view, was rebellion against the state, 

Philip possessed unusual administrative ability. He was an 
incessant worker and busied himself with the endless details of 
government. He did everything himself. His secretaries were 
mere clerks. He even regulated, or tried to regulate, the pri¬ 
vate affairs of his subjects,— told them how to dress, when they 
might use carriages, and how and where to educate their chil¬ 
dren. Under this system there was in the kingdom but one brain 
to plan and one will to direct. All local freedom and all individ-' 
ual enterprise were crushed out. This fatally centralized system 
of absolute government Philip bequeathed to his successors, and 
thus contributed greatly to determine the unhappy destiny of 
the Spanish people. 

As the most important matters of Philip’s reign—namely, 
his war against the revolted Netherlands and his attempt upon 
England with his "Invincible Armada”—belong properly to the 
respective histories of England and the Netherlands, and will 
be treated of in connection with the affairs of those countries, we 
shall give here very little space to the history of the period. 

581. Defeat of the Turkish Fleet at Lepanto ( 1571 ). Philip 
rendered at least one great service to Christian civilization at 
large. This he did by helping to stay the progress of the Otto¬ 
man Turks in the Mediterranean. They had captured the im¬ 
portant island of Cyprus and had assaulted the Hospitalers at 
Malta. All Christendom was becoming alarmed. An alliance was 


§ 532] 


THE DEATH OF PHILIP 


405 

formed, embracing the Pope, the Venetians, and Philip II. An 
immense fleet was equipped and put under the command of Don 
John of Austria, Philip’s half-brother. 

The Christian fleet met the Turkish squadron in the Gulf of 
Lepanto, on the western coast of Greece. The battle was unequaled 
by anything the Mediterranean had seen since the naval encounters 
of the Romans and Carthaginians in the First Punic War. The 
Ottoman fleet was almost totally destroyed. Thousands of Chris¬ 
tian captives, who were found chained to the oars of the Turkish 
galleys, were liberated. All Christendom rejoiced as when Jeru¬ 
salem was captured by the first crusaders. 

The battle of Lepanto holds an important place in history, 
because it marks the turning point of the long struggle between 
the Mohammedans and Christians, which had now been going 
on for nearly one thousand years. The Ottoman Turks, though 
they afterwards made progress in some quarters, never recovered 
the prestige they lost in that disaster, and their power thence¬ 
forward steadily declined. 

582. The Death of Philip ( 159 s). In the year 1588 Philip 
made his memorable attempt with the so-called "Invincible 
Armada” upon England, at this time the stronghold of Prot¬ 
estantism. As we shall see a little later, he failed utterly in the 
undertaking. Ten years after this, death ended his reign. 

583. Later Events : the Expulsion of the Moriscos ( 1609 - 
i6io) ; Loss of the Netherlands. From the death of Philip II 
Spain declined in power, reputation, and influence. This was 
due very largely to the bigotry and tyranny of her rulers. Thus, 
under Philip III (1598- 1621) a severe loss, one from which they 
never recovered, was inflicted upon the manufactures and other 
industries of the country by the expulsion of the Moriscos. 1 Philip 
really believed that this driving out of the misbelievers would be 
a service pleasing to God, even as was the driving out by the 
Hebrews of the Canaanites from Palestine. But he was actuated 
also by other motives in expelling the unhappy Moriscos. They 

1 The name given the Moslem Moors who, after the conquest of Granada (sect. 513), 
remained in the country and under persecution outwardly embraced Christianity. 


406 


THE ASCENDANCY OF SPAIN 


[§583 


were accused, and not without ground, so desperate had persecu¬ 
tion rendered them, of plotting with their co-religionists for the 
invasion of Spain, and thus endangering the peace and unity of 
the land. 

Accordingly during the years 1609 an d 1610 all persons of 
Moorish descent—more than half a million of the most intelli¬ 
gent, skillful, and industrious inhabitants of the peninsula— 
were driven into exile, chiefly to North Africa. The empty 
dwellings and neglected fields of once populous and gardenlike 
provinces told how fatal a blow Spain had inflicted upon herself. 
She had secured religious unity,—but at a great price. 

At the very moment that Spain was being so deeply wounded 
in the peninsula she received an incurable hurt in her outside 
possessions. In the Truce of 1609 (sect. 624) she was forced 
virtually to recognize the independence of the Protestant Neth¬ 
erlands, whose revolt against the tyranny of Philip II has been 
mentioned. In the secession of these provinces Spain lost her 
most valuable dependency, and now disappears as a power of the 
first rank from the stage of history. 1 

Even the very brief review which we have made of her sixteenth- 
century history will not fail to have revealed at least two of the 
main causes of her failure and quick decadence; first, a false 
imperial policy in Europe which involved her in endless and 
fruitless wars; and, second, political despotism and religious 
intolerance. 

References. Robertson, W., History of the Reign of the Emperor Charles 
the Fifth , 3 vols. Prescott, W. H., History of the Reign of Philip the Second , 
3 vols. (this and the preceding work by Robertson are reckoned among the 
classics of historical literature). Armstrong, E., The Emperor Charles V, 2 vols. 
Stirling-Maxwell, W., The Cloister Life of the Emperor Charles the Fifth. 
Hume, M. A. S., The Spanish People , chaps, ix-xi; Spain: its Greatness and 
Decay ; and Philip II of Spain. Lea, H. C., The Moriscos of Spain : their 
Conversion and Expulsion. 

1 Yet it was not till 1643 that the Spanish troops were beaten in a great battle. In 
the Italian wars of 1495-1507 the " Great Captain ” Gonzalo de Cordoba had developed 
tactics suited to the special qualities of Spanish soldiers, and it took other nations more 
than a century to learn how to beat Spaniards in the open field. But Spain lost her 
ascendancy even while her military superiority remained. 


CHAPTER LVI 

THE TUDORS AND THE ENGLISH REFORMATION 

( 1485 - 1603 ) 

I. INTRODUCTORY 

584. The Tudor Period. The Tudor period 1 was an eventful 
and stirring time for the English people. It witnessed among 
them great progress in art, science, and trade, and a literary out¬ 
burst such as the world had not seen since the best days of 
Athens. But the great event of the period was the Reformation. 
It was under the sovereigns of this house that England was 
severed from papal Rome, and Protestantism became firmly 
established in the island. To tell how these things were effected 
will be our chief aim in the present chapter. 

585. The English Reformation first a Revolt and then a 
Reform. The Reformation in England was, more distinctly than 
elsewhere, a double movement. First, England was separated 
violently from the ecclesiastical empire of Rome, but without any 
essential change being made in doctrines and in the ritual (the set 
form of worship). This was accomplished under Henry VIII. 
Second, the English Church, thus rendered independent of Rome, 
gradually changed its teachings and its ritual. This was effected 
chiefly under Edward VI. So the movement was first a revolt 
and then a reform. 

586. The Oxford Humanist Reformers. The soil in England 
was, in a considerable measure, prepared for the seed of the 
Reformation by the labors of the humanists (sect. 529). Among 
them three men, Colet, Erasmus, and More, stand preeminent as 
promoters of the New Learning. 

1 The Tudor sovereigns were Henry VII (1485-1509), Henry VIII (1509-1547), 
Edward VI (1547-1553), Mary (i 553 “ I 558 ), and Elizabeth (1558-1603). 

407 


4 o8 THE ENGLISH REFORMATION [§586 

John Colet (1466-1519) was leader and master of the little 
band. His generous enthusiasm was kindled in Italy. It was an 
important event in the histoiy of the Reformation when Colet 
crossed the Alps to learn Greek at the feet of the Greek exiles, 
for on his return to England he brought back with him not 
only an increased love for the classical learning but a fervent zeal 

for religious reform, inspired, per¬ 
haps, by the stirring eloquence of 
Savonarola. 

Desiderius Erasmus (1467?- 
1536) of Rotterdam went to Eng¬ 
land to learn Greek. There he 
came into close friendship with 
Colet, More, and other lovers of 
learning, with whom he declared 
he could have been happy in 
Scythia. He was the leader of the 
humanistic movement in the North, 
as Petrarch had been the father of 
the movement in the South. His 
celebrated satire entitled Morice 
Encomium, or "Praise of Folly” 
(1509), was directed against the 
foibles of all classes of society, but particularly against the sins 
of "unholy men in holy orders.” A little later (in 1516) Erasmus 
published his Novum Instrumentum , the Greek text of the New 
Testament with a Latin version. These publications must be 
given a prominent place among the agencies which prepared the 
minds and hearts of the Northern peoples for the Reformation. 

Thomas More (1478-1535) was declared by Colet to be the 
sole genius in all England. He was a man with whom men were 
said to "fall in love.” As the author of Utopia he is, perhaps, 
after Erasmus, the best known of all the humanists of the North. 
He was drawn, or rather forced, into political life, and of him 
and his writings we shall have occasion to speak hereafter, in 
connection with the reign of Henry VIII (sect. 600). 



Fig. 112. Sir Thomas More 
(After the painting by Holbein) 


§ 587] 


BENEVOLENCES 


409 


Than this early Oxford movement, nothing better illustrates 
the relation of the humanistic revival in the North to the religious 
reform. Here the humanist was the reformer. But the Oxford 
reformers, it should be carefully noted, were not Protestant re¬ 
formers. They believed in the divine character of the papal 
supremacy. They wished indeed to reform the Papacy, but not 
to destroy it. They did not wish to see the mediaeval unity of 
Christendom broken. They had no quarrel with the creed of 
the Catholic Church. Erasmus denounced the doctrines of Luther, 
and More died a martyr’s death rather than deny the papal 
supremacy. 

II. THE REIGN OF HENRY VII (1485-1509) 

587 . Benevolences. The besetting sins of Henry VII, the first 
of the Tudors, were avarice and a love of despotic rule. One 
device adopted by the king for wringing money from his wealthy 
subjects was what were euphemistically termed "Benevolences.” 
Magna Carta forbade the king to impose taxes without the con¬ 
sent of the Common Council. But Henry did not like to convene 
Parliament, as he wished to rule like the kings of the Continent, 
guided simply by his own free will. So benevolences were made 
to take the place of regular taxes. These were nothing more nor 
less than gifts extorted from the well-to-do by moral pressure. 

One of Henry’s ministers, Cardinal Morton, was particularly 
successful in his appeals for gifts of this kind. To those who 
lived splendidly he would say that it was very evident they were 
quite able to make a generous donation to their sovereign; while to 
others who lived in a narrow and pinched way he would represent 
that their economical mode of life must have made them wealthy. 
This teasing dilemma received the name of " Morton’s fork.” 

588. Maritime Discoveries. It was during this reign that 
great geographical discoveries enlarged the boundaries of the 
world. Soon after Columbus had announced to Europe the exist¬ 
ence of land to the west, Henry commissioned John Cabot, a 
Venetian navigator doing business in England, and his sons to 
make explorations in the Western seas. In his westward voyage 


4io 


THE ENGLISH REFORMATION 


[§ 589 


Cabot ran against the American continent somewhere in the 
vicinity of Newfoundland, and took possession of the country 
in the name of the English sovereign (1497). Upon this discov¬ 
ery and other alleged explorations of John Cabot and his son 
Sebastian the English based their claim to the whole of the Amer¬ 
ican coast from Labrador down to Florida. This claim included 
the best part of North America,—what was destined to be the 
third and most spacious home of the Anglo-Saxon race. 


III. ENGLAND SEVERED FROM THE PAPACY BY 
HENRY VIII ( 1509 - 1547 ) 

589 . Cardinal Wolsey. Henry VII died in 1509, leaving the 
throne to his son Henry, an energetic and headstrong youth of 
eighteen years. We must here at the opening of the young king’s 
reign 1 introduce his greatest minister, Thomas Wolsey (1475?- 
1530). This man was one of the most remarkable characters of 
his generation. He was, as Holinshed characterizes him, "very elo¬ 
quent and full of wit; but passingly ambitious.” Henry made him 
Archbishop of York and Lord Chancellor of the realm; the Pope 
made him a cardinal, and afterwards papal legate in England. He 
was now virtually at the head of affairs in both State and Church. 

590 . Henry as "Defender of the Faith.” It was in the eighth 
year of Henry VIILs reign that Martin Luther tacked upon the 
door of the Wittenberg church his famous ninety-five theses. 
England was stirred with the rest of Western Christendom. 
When, a little later, Luther attacked directly the papal power, 
Henry wrote a Latin treatise refuting the arguments of the auda¬ 
cious monk. The Pope, Leo X, rewarded Henry’s Catholic zeal 
by conferring upon him the title of "Defender of the Faith.” 

1 In 1512, joining what was known as the Holy League, — a union against the French 
king, of which the Pope was the head, — Henry made his first campaign in France. 
While Henry was across the Channel, James IV of Scotland thought to give aid to the 
French king by invading England. The Scottish army was met by the English force at 
Flodden, beneath the Cheviot Hills, and completely overwhelmed (1513). King James 
was killed, and the flower of the Scottish nobility was left dead upon the field. It was 
the most terrible disaster that had ever befallen the Scottish nation. Scott’s poem 
Mar mi on, a Tale of Flodden Field, commemorates the battle. 


§ 591 ] HENRY’S DIVORCE FROM CATHERINE 


411 

This title was retained by Henry after the separation of Eng¬ 
land from the Papal See, and is borne by his latest successor 
today, although he is "defender” of quite a different faith from 
that in the defense of which Plenry first earned the title. 

591 . Henry seeks a Divorce from Catherine. We have now 
to relate some circumstances which very soon changed Henry from 



Fig. 113. Henry VIII. (After a painting by Holbein ) 


a zealous supporter of the Papacy into a bitter enemy. Henry’s 
marriage—he married Catherine of Aragon, the widow of his 
brother Arthur—had been prompted by policy and not by love. 
Of the five children born of the union, all had died save a sickly 
daughter named Mary. In these successive afflictions Henry saw 
or feigned to see a sign of Heaven’s displeasure because he had 
taken to wife the widow of his brother. 

And now a new circumstance arose, if it had not existed for 
some time previous to this. Henry fell in love with Anne Boleyn, 











412 


THE ENGLISH REFORMATION 


[§592 


a beautiful and vivacious maid of honor in the queen’s household. 
This new affection so quickened the king’s conscience that he 
soon became fully convinced that it was his duty to put Catherine 
aside. Accordingly Henry asked the Pope, Clement VII, to grant 
him a divorce. Clement gave no immediate decision, but after 
about two years’ delay ordered Henry and Catherine both to 
appear before him at Rome. 

592 . The Fall of Wolsey; his Death (1530). Henry’s pa¬ 
tience was now completely exhausted. Becoming persuaded that 
Wolsey was not exerting himself as he might to secure the divorce, 
he banished him from court. The hatred of Anne Boleyn and of 
others pursued the fallen minister. Finally he was arrested on the 
preposterous charge of high treason. While on his way to London 
the unhappy minister, broken in spirit and in health, was pros¬ 
trated by a fatal fever. As he lay dying in the arms of the kind 
monks of Leicester Abbey, he uttered these self-censuring words:. 
"Had I served my God as diligently as I have served my king, He 
would not have given me over in my gray hairs.” 

Wolsey had indeed sunk his priestly office in that of the 
stateman, and as a statesman he had often stifled the scruples 
of conscience in obedience to the king’s unholy wishes and 
commands. 

593 . Thomas Cromwell. After the disgrace of Wolsey an 
attendant. of his named Thomas Cromwell rapidly assumed in 
Henry’s regard the place from which the cardinal had fallen. 
For the space of ten years this strong but unscrupulous man 
shaped the policy of Henry’s government. The period during 
which his power was supreme has been called the English Reign 
of Terror. The executioner’s ax was often wet with the blood of 
those who stood in his way, or who in any manner incurred his or 
the king’s displeasure. 

It was to the bold suggestions of this man that Henry now lis¬ 
tened. Cromwell’s advice to the king was to waste no more time 
in negotiating with the Pope, but at once to renounce his jurisdic¬ 
tion, proclaim himself supreme head of the Church in England, 
and then get a decree of divorce from his own courts. 


§ 594] 


THE ACT OF SUPREMACY 


4^3 


594. First Acts in the Breach with Rome ( 1533 - 1534 ). 
The advice of Cromwell was acted upon, and by a series of steps 
England was swiftly carried out from under the authority of the 
Roman See. Henry first virtually cut the Gordian knot by a 
secret marriage with Anne Boleyn, notwithstanding a papal decree 
threatening him with excommunication should he dare to do so. 
Thomas Cranmer, a friend whom Henry had made Archbishop 
of Canterbury, now formed a court, tried the case, and of course 
declared the king’s marriage with Catherine null and void. 

The following year Henry procured from Parliament the pas¬ 
sage of the important x\ct of Annates, which forbade absolutely 
the payment to Rome of the first fruits of archbishoprics and 
bishoprics, and ordered that these should henceforth be paid to 
the English crown. 

595. The Act of Supremacy ( 1534 ). At Rome the acts of 
Henry and his Parliament were denounced as acts of impious 
usurpation. The Pope issued a bull excommunicating Henry and 
relieving his subjects from their allegiance. 

Henry now took the final and decisive step. He got from Par¬ 
liament the celebrated Act of Supremacy. This statute made 
Henry "the only Supreme Head in earth of the Church of Eng¬ 
land,” vesting in him absolute control of its offices , and affairs 
and turning into his hands the revenue which had hitherto flowed 
into Rome’s treasury. A denial of the title given the king by 
the statute was made high treason. 

Such a break with the past met of course with much disapproval, 
and many persons were put to death under the statute. The most 
illustrious victims of this tyranny were John Fisher, Bishop of 
Rochester, and Sir Thomas More, who for several years was one 
of Henry’s chief councilors. The execution of Thomas More par¬ 
ticularly created widespread condemnation and dismay. 

596. The Suppression of the Monasteries ( 1536 - 1539 ). The 
suppression of the monasteries was one of Henry s eaily acts as 
the supreme head of the Church of England. He resolved upon 
their destruction because, in the first place, he coveted their 
wealth, which at this time included probably one fifth of the lands 


4H 


THE ENGLISH REFORMATION 


[§597 


of the realm. Further, the monks were openly or secretly opposed 
to Henry’s claims of supremacy in religious matters; and this 
naturally caused him to regard them with jealousy and disfavor. 

In order to make the act of suppression appear as reasonable 
as possible, it was planned to make the charge of immorality its 
ostensible ground. Accordingly two royal commissioners were 
appointed to inspect the monasteries and make a report upon 
what they might see and learn. If we may believe the report, 
some of the smaller houses were conducted in a most shameful 
manner. The larger houses, however, were fairly free from faults. 
Many of them served as schools, hospitals, and inns, and all dis¬ 
tributed alms to the poor who knocked at their gates. 

But the undoubted usefulness and irreproachable character of 
these larger foundations did not avail to avert ruin from them also. 
During the years from 1537 to 1539 all were dissolved, their pos¬ 
sessors generally surrendering the property voluntarily into the 
hands of the king lest a worse thing than the loss of their houses 
should come upon them. In all there were six hundred and forty- 
five monasteries broken up. The monastic buildings were generally 
dismantled, every scrap of iron or lead being torn from them, and 
their unprotected walls left to sink into picturesque ivy-clad ruins. 

A portion of the vast wealth which came into Henry’s hands 
through all these confiscations was used in founding schools and 
colleges and for other public purposes; but by far the greater 
portion of the landed property was sold at merely nominal prices 
or given outright to the favorites of the king. Many of the lead¬ 
ing English families of today trace the titles of their estates from 
these confiscated lands of the religious houses. Thus a new aris¬ 
tocracy was raised up whose interests led them to oppose any 
return to Rome; for in such an event their estates were liable, 
of course, to be restored to the monasteries. 

597. Effects upon Parliament of the Suppression of the 
Monasteries. The effects of the dissolution of the monasteries 
upon the Upper House of Parliament were, for the time being, 
most disastrous to the cause of English constitutional liberty. 
The House of Lords had hitherto often been a check upon the 


§ 598] 


UNIFORMITY OF BELIEF 


415 


royal power. By the destruction of the religious houses that 
branch of Parliament, already greatly reduced in strength by the 
decay of the temporal peerage, was still further weakened through 
the casting out of the abbots and priors who held seats in that 
chamber. 1 At the same time the spiritual lords who were left, that 
is, the two archbishops and the bishops, became mere dependents 
of the king, whom the Act of Supremacy had made head of the 
English Church without any superior on earth. 

Thus did the House of Lords almost cease to be a body with a 
mind and will of its own. Since the House of Commons contained 
many servile nominees of the king, the English government now 
became something like an absolute monarchy. It was only after 
a tremendous struggle, as we shall see, that the English people 
were enabled to wrest from their kings the power which thus had 
come into their hands largely through the circumstances attend¬ 
ing the separation from Rome, and to restore to the government 
its earlier character. 

598. Act to secure Uniformity of Belief ( 1539 ). In the same 
year that Parliament gave into Henry’s hands the last of the 
property of the monastic orders, it passed a bill called an Act for 
Abolishing Diversity of Opinions. By this statute the teachings 
of the old Church respecting the real presence in the Eucharist, 
the celibacy of the priesthood, confession to a priest, and other 
tenets were approved as agreeable to the laws of God, and it was 
made a crime for any person to hold, to teach, or to practice 
opinions opposed to any of these dogmas. 

What the Church of England should be called under Henry it 
would be hard to say. It was not Protestant; and it was just as 
far from being truly Catholic. That it was distinctively neither the 
one nor the other is shown by the character of the persecutions 
that took place. Catholics and Protestants alike were harassed 
and put to death. Thus, on one occasion three Catholics who de¬ 
nied that the king was the rightful head of the Church and three 
Protestants who disputed the doctrine of the real presence in the 
Eucharist were dragged on the same sled to the place of execution. 

1 Twenty-six abbots and two priors were expelled. 


416 THE ENGLISH REFORMATION [§599 

599. Henry’s Death and Character; his Work. Henry died 

in 1547. Very diverse views of his character have been held. 
He was admittedly meddlesome, cruel,, arbitrary, and selfish. 
Even if the English people are indebted to him for their national 
independent Church, still they owe him for this no gratitude; 
for what he did here proceeded primarily from the most ignoble 
impulses and motives. 

In another sphere, however, Henry accomplished a work which 
entitles him to the grateful remembrance of a people who pride 
themselves on their mastery of the sea. He had the vision to 
discern that England’s dominion must be sought not on the Euro¬ 
pean Continent but on the ocean. Hence he took a deep interest 
in naval affairs. At a time when the Continental sovereigns were 
creating standing armies, he, as it has been put, created for Eng¬ 
land a "standing navy.” He brought to perfection the sailing 
warship and gave it precedence over the oared vessel, which up to 
this time had held the chief place in the world’s war navies. 
Thus, under Henry the English navy, in the words of an eminent 
naval authority, "was becoming an entirely new thing, a thing 
the world had never seen before.” The change was somewhat like 
that effected when the steamship replaced the sailing vessel. 

600. Literature under Henry VIII; More’s Utopia. The most 
prominent literary figure of this period is Sir Thomas More. The 
work upon which his fame as a writer mainly rests is his Utopia , 
or "Nowhere,” a romance like Plato’s Republic or Sir Philip 
Sidney’s Arcadia. It pictures an imaginary kingdom away on an 
island in the New World, then just discovered, where the laws, 
manners, and customs of the people were represented as being 
ideally perfect. It was the wretchedness of the lower classes, the 
religious intolerance, the despotic government of the times which 
inspired the Utopia. "No such cry of pity for the poor,” says 
Green, "had been heard since the days of Piers Plowman.” 
But More’s was not simply such a cry of despair as was that of 
Langland. He saw a better future; and with a view of reforming 
them, pointed out the existing evils in society. He did this by 
telling how things were in "Nowhere,”—how the houses and 


§ 601] 


CHANGES IN THE RELIGION 


417 


grounds were all inviting, the streets broad and clean; how every¬ 
body was taught to read and write, and no one was obliged to 
work more than six hours a day ; how drinking houses, brawls, and 
wars were unknown; how in this happy republic every person 
had a part in the government, and was allowed to follow what 
religion he chose. 

In this wise way More suggested improvements in social, polit¬ 
ical, and religious matters. He did not expect, however, that 
Henry would follow all his suggestions, for he closes his account of 
the Utopians with this admission: "I confess that many things in 
the commonwealth of Utopia I rather wish than hope to see 
adopted in our own.” 


IV. CHANGES IN DOCTRINE AND RITUAL UNDER 
EDWARD VI (1547-1553) 

601. Changes in the Religion. In accordance with the pro¬ 
visions of a Succession Act passed in Henry’s reign, his only son, 
Edward, succeeded him. The young king was carefully taught 
the doctrines of the reformers, and many changes were made 
in the teachings and service of the English Church, which carried 
it farther away from the Church of Rome. It is these changes in 
religion that constitute the matters most worthy of our attention. 

Under the new regime all pictures and crosses were cleared 
from the churches; the use of tapers, holy water, and incense 
was discontinued; the veneration of the Virgin and the keeping 
•of saints’ days were prohibited; belief in purgatory was de¬ 
nounced, and prayers for the dead were interdicted; the real or 
bodily presence of Christ in the bread and wine of the sacrament 
was denied; the prohibition against the marriage of the clergy 
was annulled; and the services of the Church, which hitherto— 
save as to some portion of them during the last three years of 
Henry’s reign—had been conducted in Latin, were ordered to be 
said in the language of the people. 

In order that the provision last mentioned might be effectually 
carried out, the English Book of Common Prayer was prepared 


418 


THE ENGLISH REFORMATION 


[§ 602 


by Archbishop Cranmer. This book, which was in the main simply 
a translation of the old Latin Missal and Breviary, with the subse¬ 
quent change of a word here and a passage there to keep it in 
accord with the growing new doctrines, is the same that is used in 
the Anglican Church at the present time. 

In 1552 were published the famous Forty-two Articles of Reli¬ 
gion, which formed a compendious creed of the reformed faith. 
These articles, reduced finally to thirty-nine, form the present 
standard of faith and doctrine in the Church of England. 

602. Persecutions to secure Uniformity. These sweeping 
changes and innovations in the old creed and in the services of 
the Church would have worked little hardship or wrong had only 
everybody, as in More’s happy republic, been left free to favor 
and follow what religion he would. But unfortunately it was 
only away in "Nowhere” that men were allowed perfect free¬ 
dom of conscience and worship. The idea of toleration had not 
yet dawned upon the world, save in the happier moments of some 
such generous and wide-horizoned soul as his that conceived 
the Utopia. 

By royal edict all preachers and teachers were forced to sign 
the Forty-two Articles ; and severe laws, known as the Acts for the 
Uniformity of Service, punished with severe penalties any de¬ 
parture from the forms of the new prayer book. Many persons 
during the reign were imprisoned for refusing to conform to the 
new worship; while two at least were given to the flames as 
"heretics and contemners of the Book of Common Prayer.” 


V. REACTION UNDER MARY (1553-1558) 

603. Accession of Mary; Reconciliation with Rome ( 1554 ). 

Upon the death of Edward his sister Mary, who was a conscien¬ 
tious adherent of the Roman Catholic faith, came to the throne. 
Soon after her accession she was married to Philip II of Spain. 
This marriage had been planned by Philip’s father, the Emperor 
Charles V, in the hope that thereby England might become 
actually or in effect a part of the Spanish empire. 


§ 604] 


THE MARTYRS' 


419 


The majority of the English prelates had never in their hearts 
approved the recent ecclesiastical changes. Their zeal for the 
ancient Church, allied with Mary’s, now quickly brought about the 
full reestablishment of the Catholic worship throughout the realm. 
Parliament voted that the nation should return to its obedience to 
the Papal See; and then the members of both Houses fell upon 
their knees to receive at the hands of the papal legate absolution 
from the sin of heresy and schism. The sincerity of their repent¬ 
ance was attested by their repeal of all the acts by which the new 
worship had been set up in the land. The joy at Rome was un¬ 
bounded. The prodigal had returned to his father’s house. 

But not quite everything done by the reformers was undone. 
Parliament refused to restore the confiscated Church lands, which 
was very natural, as much of this property was now in the hands 
of the lords and commoners. Mary, however, in her zeal for 
the ancient faith, restored a great part of the property still in 
the possession of the crown, and refounded many of the ruined 
monasteries and abbeys. 

604. The Martyrs: Latimer and Ridley ( 1555 ), and Cranmer 
( 1556 ). With the reestablishment of the Catholic worship, the 
Protestants in their turn were subjected to persecution. Be¬ 
tween two and three hundred persons suffered death during 
this reign on account of their religion. The three most emi¬ 
nent martyrs were Latimer, Ridley, and Cranmer. Latimer 
and Ridley were burned at the same stake. As the torch was 
applied to the fagots, the aged Latimer—he was seventy years 
old — encouraged his companion with these memorable words: 
"Be of good comfort, Master Ridley, and play the man; we shall 
this day, by God’s grace, light such a candle in England as I 
trust shall never be put out.” 

Mary should not be judged harshly for the part she took in the 
persecutions that disfigured her reign. It was not her fault, but 
the fault of the age, that these things were done. Punishment of 
heresy was then regarded, by almost all Catholics and Protestants 
alike, as a duty which could be neglected by those in authority 
only at the peril of Heaven’s displeasure. 


420 


THE ENGLISH REFORMATION 


[§ 605 


VI. FINAL ESTABLISHMENT OF PROTESTANTISM UNDER 

ELIZABETH (1558-1603) 



605. The Queen. Elizabeth, who was twenty-five years of age 
when the death of Mary called her to the throne, was the daughter 

of Henry VIII and 
Anne Boleyn. She 
seems to have inher¬ 
ited the characteristics 
of both parents ; hence, 
perhaps, the inconsist¬ 
encies of her disposi¬ 
tion. She possessed a 
masculine intellect, a 
strong will, admirable 
judgment, and great 
political tact. It was 
these qualities which 
rendered her reign the 
strongest and most il¬ 
lustrious in the record 
of England’s sover¬ 
eigns, and raised the 
nation from a position 
of comparative insig¬ 
nificance to a foremost 
place among the states 
of Europe. But along 
Fig. 114. Queen Elizabeth. (The Ermine with her good and 
Portrait , from the collection of the Marquis of queenlv qualities Eliz- 
Salisbury, Hatfield House) abeth had many un _' 

amiable traits. She was 
capricious, treacherous, and unscrupulous. Deception and false¬ 
hood were her usual weapons in diplomacy. 

Elizabeth never married, notwithstanding Parliament was con¬ 
stantly urging her to do so, and suitors, among whom was Philip II 










§ 606 ] 


ELIZABETH’S MINISTERS 


421 


of Spain, were as numerous as those who sought the hand of 
Penelope. She declared—very late in her reign, however—that 
on her coronation day she was married to the English realm, and 
that she would have no other husband. She remained to the end 
the "fair Vestal throned by the West.” 

606. Her Ministers. One secret of the strength and popularity 
of Elizabeth’s government was the admirable judgment she exer¬ 
cised in her choice of advisers. The courtiers with whom she 
crowded her receptions might be frivolous persons ; but about 
her council board she gathered the wisest men of the realm. And 
yet Elizabeth’s government was really her own. We now know 
that her advisers did not have as much to do with shaping the 
policies of the reign as was formerly believed. 

607. Reestablishment of the Reformed Church. As Mary 
undid the work in religion of Henry and Edward, so now her 
work was undone by Elizabeth. Elizabeth favored the reformed 
faith rather from policy than from conviction. It was to the 
Protestants alone that she could look for support; her title to the 
crown was denied by every true Catholic in the realm, for she was 
the child of that marriage which the Pope had forbidden under 
pain of the penalties of the Church. 

The religious houses which had been refounded by Mary were 
again dissolved, and Parliament by the two important Acts of 
Supremacy and Uniformity ( 1559 ) reestablished the independ¬ 
ence of the Church of England. The Act of Supremacy required 
all the clergy, and every person holding office under the crown, 
to take an oath declaring the queen to be the supreme governor 
of the realm in all spiritual as well as in all temporal things. 
For refusing to deny the supremacy of the Pope many Catholics 
during Elizabeth’s reign suffered death, and many more endured 
within the Tower the worse horrors of the rack. 

The Act of Uniformity forbade any clergyman to use any but 
the Anglican liturgy, and required every person to attend the 
Established Church on Sunday and other holy days. The perse¬ 
cutions which arose under this law caused many Catholics to 
seek freedom of worship in other countries. 


422 


THE ENGLISH REFORMATION 


[§ 60S 


608. The Protestant Nonconformists; Puritans and Sepa¬ 
ratists. The Catholics were not the only persons among Eliza¬ 
beth’s subjects who were opposed to the Anglican worship. There 
were Protestant nonconformists—the Puritans and Separatists— 
who troubled her almost as much as the Catholics. 

The Puritans were so named because they desired a purer form 
of worship than the Anglican. The term was applied to them in 
derision; but the sterling character of those thus designated at 
length turned the epithet of reproach into a badge of honorable 
distinction. They did not withdraw from the Established Church, 
but remaining within its pale labored to reform it and to shape 
its discipline to their notions. These Puritans were destined to 
play a prominent part in the later affairs of England. 

The Separatists were still more zealous reformers than the Puri¬ 
tans. In their hatred of everything that bore any resemblance to 
the Catholic worship, they flung away the surplice and the prayer 
book, severed all connection with the Established Church, and 
refused to have anything to do with it. Under the Act of Uniform¬ 
ity they were persecuted with great severity, so that multitudes 
were led to seek an asylum upon the Continent. It was from 
among these exiles gathered in Holland that a little later came the 
passengers of the Mayflower and Speedwell ,— the Pilgrim Fathers, 
who laid the foundations of civil liberty in the New World. 

609. Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots. A large part of the 
history of Elizabeth’s reign is intertwined with the story of her 
cousin, Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, the "modern Helen,” 
"the most beautiful, the weakest, the most attractive, and most 
attracted of women.” She was the daughter of James V of Scot¬ 
land, and to her in right of birth —according to all Catholics, 
who denied the validity of Henry’s marriage with Anne Boleyn— 
belonged the English crown next after Mary Tudor. 

Upon the death, in 1560 , of her husband, Francis II of France, 
Mary gave up life at the French court and returned to her native 
land. She was now in her nineteenth year. The subtle charm of 
her beauty seems to have bewitched all who came into her pres¬ 
ence, save the more zealous of the reformers, who could never 


§ 609] 


MARY STUART, QUEEN OF SCOTS 


423 


forget that their young sovereign was a Catholic. The stern old 
John Knox made her life miserable. He called her a "Moabite,” 
and other opprobrious names, till she wept from sheer vexation. 

Other things now conspired with Mary’s hated religion to 
alienate entirely the love of her people. Her second husband, 
Lord Darnley, was murdered. The queen was suspected of hav¬ 
ing some guilty knowledge of the affair. She was imprisoned 
and forced to abdicate in favor of 
her infant son James. 

Escaping from prison, Mary fled 
into England. Here she threw her¬ 
self upon the generosity of her cousin 
Elizabeth, and entreated aid in recov¬ 
ering her throne. But the part which 
she was generally believed to have 
had in the murder of her husband, 
her disturbing claims to the English 
throne, and the fact that she was a 
Catholic all conspired to determine 
her fate. She was placed in confine¬ 
ment, and for nineteen years re¬ 
mained a prisoner. During all this 
time Mary was the center of innu¬ 
merable plots on the part of the 
Catholics, which aimed at setting her 
upon the English throne. The Pope, 

Pius V, aided these conspirators by a 
bull excommunicating Elizabeth and releasing her subjects from 
their allegiance. Finally a carefully laid conspiracy to assassinate 
Elizabeth and place Mary on the throne was unearthed. The 
Spanish king, Philip II, was implicated. He wrote, "The affair 
is so much in God’s service that it certainly deserves to be sup¬ 
ported, and we must hope that our Lord will prosper it, unless 
our sins be an impediment thereto.” 

Mary was tried for complicity in the plot, was declared guilty, 
and, after some hesitation, feigned or otherwise, on the part of 



Fig. 115. Mary Stuart as 
Queen of France. (After 
a contemporary and authentic 
portrait in the Bibliotheque 
Nationale, Paris ; from Cust's 
Notes on the Authentic Por¬ 
traits of Mary Queen of Scots') 



424 


THE ENGLISH REFORMATION 


[§ 610 * 


Elizabeth, was ordered to the block ( 1587 ). Even after Eliza¬ 
beth had signed the warrant for her execution she attempted to 
evade responsibility in the matter by causing a suggestion to be 
made to Mary’s jailers that they should kill her secretly. 

610. The "Invincible Armada”; "Britain’s Salamis” (i588). 
The execution of Mary Stuart led immediately to the memorable 
attempt against England by the Spanish Armada. Before her 
death the Queen of Scots had by will disinherited her son and 
bequeathed to Philip II of Spain her claims to the English crown. 
To enforce these rights, to avenge the death of Mary, to punish 
Elizabeth for aiding his rebellious subjects in the Netherlands^ 
and to deal a fatal blow to the Reformation in Europe by crush¬ 
ing the Protestants of England, Philip resolved upon making a 
tremendous effort for the conquest of the heretical island. Vast 
preparations were made for carrying out the project. Great fleets 
were gathered in the harbors of Spain, and the veteran army 
which was carrying on the war in the Netherlands (sect. 624 ) was 
to cooperate with the naval armament. 

Pope Sixtus V encouraged Philip in the enterprise, which was 
thus rendered a sort of crusade. At last the fleet, consisting of 
about one hundred and thirty ships, the largest naval armament 
that had ever appeared upon the Atlantic, and boastfully called 
the "Invincible Armada,” set sail from Lisbon for the Channel. 
The approaching danger produced a perfect fever of excitement 
in England. Never did Roman citizens rise more splendidly to 
avert some terrible peril threatening the republic than the Eng¬ 
lish people now arose as a single man to defend their island 
realm against the revengeful project of Spain. The imminent 
danger served to unite all classes, the gentry and the yeomanry,. 
Protestants and Catholics. The latter might intrigue to set a 
Mary Stuart on the English throne, but they were not ready to 
betray their land into the hands of the hated Spaniards. 

On July 19 , 1588 , the Armada was first descried by the watch¬ 
men on the English cliffs. It swept up the Channel in the form 
of a great crescent, seven miles in width from tip to tip of horn. 
The English ships, about eighty in number, whose light structure 


§ 611 ] 


THE INVINCIBLE ARMADA 


42 5 

and swift movements, together with the superior gunnery of their 
sailors, gave them a great advantage over the clumsy Spanish gal¬ 
leons, almost immediately began to impede their advance, and for 
seven days incessantly harassed the Armada. One night, as the 
damaged fleet lay off the harbor of Calais, the English (now 
reenforced to some hundred and forty ships, mostly small; fifteen 
or sixteen bore the main brunt) sent fire ships among the vessels, 
whereby a number were destroyed and a panic created among the 
others. A determined attack the next day by Howard, Drake,, 
and Lord Henry Seymour inflicted a still severer loss upon the fleet. 

The Spaniards, thinking now of nothing save escape, spread 
their sails in flight, proposing to get away by sailing northward 
around the British Isles. But the storms of the northern seas 
dashed many of the remaining ships to pieces on the Scottish 
and the Irish shores. Barely one third of the ships of the 
Armada ever reentered the harbors whence they sailed. 

Well may the great fight in the Channel which shattered the 
Armada be called "Britain’s Salamis”; for like Athens’ Salamis. 
it revealed the weakness and proclaimed the downfall of a vast 
despotic empire, while at the same time it disclosed the strength 
and announced the rise of a new free state destined to a great 
future. But the destruction of the Armada concerned other than 
purely English and Spanish interests. It marked the turning 
point in the great duel between Catholicism and Protestantism. 
It not only decided that England was to remain Protestant, 
but it foreshadowed the independence of the Protestant Nether¬ 
lands, and assured, or greatly helped to assure, the future of 
Protestantism in Scandinavia and in North Germany. 

611. Maritime and Colonial Enterprises. The crippling of the 
naval power of Spain left England mistress of the seas: The little 
island realm now entered upon the most splendid period of her 
history. These truly were "the spacious times of great Elizabeth.” 
The English people, stirred by recent events, seemed to burn with 
a feverish impatience for maritime adventure and glory. Many a 
story of the daring exploits of English sea rovers during the reign 
of Elizabeth seems like a repetition of some tale of the old Vikings. 


426 


THE ENGLISH REFORMATION 


[§ 612 


Especially deserving of mention among the enterprises of these 
stirring and romantic times are the undertakings and adventures of 
Sir Walter Raleigh (1552 ?-i 6 i 8 ). Several expeditions were sent 
out by him for the purpose of making explorations and forming 
settlements in the New World. One of these, which explored the 
central coasts of North America, returned with such glowing 
accounts of the beauty and richness of the land visited, that, in 
honor of the virgin queen, it was named Virginia. 

Raleigh attempted to establish colonies in the new land (1585- 
1590), but the settlements were unsuccessful. The settlers, how¬ 
ever, when they returned home, brought with them tobacco and 
pipes, and Raleigh introduced smoking in Europe; tradition says 
they also brought potatoes, which he planted in Ireland. These, 
together with maize, or Indian corn, were the chief return the 
New World made to the Old for the great number of domesticated 
plants and grains which it received from thence. 1 

612 . The Queen’s Death (1603). The closing days of Eliza¬ 
beth’s reign were to her personally dark and gloomy. She seemed 
to be burdened with a secret grief as well as by the growing in¬ 
firmities of age. She died in the seventieth year of her age and 
the forty-fifth of her reign. With her ended the Tudor line of 
English sovereigns. 


Literature of the Elizabethan Era 

613 . Influences Favorable to Literature. The years covered 
by the reign of Elizabeth constitute one of the most momentous 
periods in history. It was the age when Europe was most deeply 

1 Potatoes and the tobacco plant, but not the habit of smoking, had already been 
brought to Spain. Potatoes were not then known in North America ; the first colonists 
might have got potatoes on the ships that brought them home; they had not been in 
America through a summer to enjoy a crop of their own. Other American plants now 
largely cultivated in the Old World are tomatoes, beans (not only the Lima bean but the 
common American bean, called in England the French bean), squashes, pumpkins, sweet 
potatoes (the "potato ” of Shakespeare’s time), peanuts, cassava (tapioca), cacao (choco¬ 
late), vanilla, cinchona (quinine), grapevines whose roots the phylloxera does not destroy, 
the large cultivated strawberry (of Chilean origin), and the prickly pear (grown as food 
for the cochineal insect, but also yielding a fruit, and running wild in hot dry countries). 


§ 613] 


ELIZABETHAN LITERATURE 


427 


stirred by the Reformation. It was, too, a period of marvelous 
physical and intellectual expansion and growth. The discov¬ 
eries of Columbus and others had created a New World. The 
Renaissance had re-created the Old World,—had revealed an un¬ 
suspected treasure in the civilizations of the past. Thus every¬ 
thing conspired to quicken men’s intellect and stimulate their 
magination. 

An age of such activity and achievement almost of necessity 
gives birth to a strong and vigorous literature. And thus is 
explained, in part at least, how during this period the English 
people—for no people of Europe felt more deeply the stir and 
movement of the times, nor helped more to create this same stir 
and movement, than the English nation—should have developed 
a literature of such originality and richness and strength as to 
make it the prized inheritance of all the world. "The great writers 
who shine in the literary splendor of the Elizabethan Age,” says 
an eminent critic, "were the natural product of the newly awak¬ 
ened, thoughtful English nation of that day.” 

To make special mention of all the great writers who adorned 
the Elizabethan era would carry us quite beyond the limits of 
our book. Having said something of the influence under which 
they wrote, we will simply add that this age was the age of 
Shakespeare and Spenser and Bacon. 1 

References. Seebohm, F., The Oxford Reformers (a volume of rare fresh¬ 
ness and charm on the fellow-work and influence of the Oxford reformers,— 
Colet, Erasmus, and More). The Cambridge Modem History , vol. i, chap. xiv. 
Green, J. R., Short History of the English People , chaps, vi and vii. Froude, 
J. A., English Seamen in the Sixteenth Century and The Spanish Story of the 
Armada. GasqUET, F. A., Henry VI/I and the English Monasteries , 2 vols., 
and The Eve of the Reformation (these are the works of an eminent Catholic 
scholar). Creighton, M., Queen Elizabeth and Cardinal Wolsey. Bf.esly, E. S., 
Queen Elizabeth. For concise narrations of the events dealt with in this 
chapter, see Gardiner’s, Montgomery’s, Terry’s, Coman and Kendall’s, 
Andrews’, and Cheyney’s textbooks on English history. 

1 William Shakespeare (1564-1616); Edmund Spenser (1552 ?-i 599 ) i Francis Bacon 
(1561-1626). Shakespeare and Bacon, it will be noticed, outlived Elizabeth. 


CHAPTER LVII 


THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS; RISE OF THE 

DUTCH REPUBLIC 

(1572-1609) 

614 . The Country. The name Netherlands (lowlands) was 
formerly applied to all that district in the northwest of Europe, 
much of it sunk below the level of the sea, now occupied by the 
kingdoms of the Netherlands and Belgium. A large part of this 



Fig. 116. Typical Dutch Scene: Zaandam. (From a photograph) 


region is simply the delta accumulations of the Rhine and other 
rivers emptying into the North Sea. Originally it was often over¬ 
flowed by its streams and inundated by the ocean. 

But this unpromising morass, protected at last by heavy dikes 
seaward against the invasions of the ocean, and by great embank¬ 
ments inland against the overflow of its streams, was destined to 
become the site of the most potent cities of Europe, and the seat 
of one of the foremost commonwealths of modern times. No 
country in Europe made greater progress in civilization during 
the mediaeval era than the Netherlands. At the opening of the 
sixteenth century they contained a crowded and busy popula¬ 
tion of three million souls. The ancient marshes had been trans¬ 
formed into carefully kept gardens and orchards. The walled 

428 













§ 615 ] THE LOW COUNTRIES UNDER CHARLES V 429 

cities numbered between two and three hundred. Antwerp rivaled 
even the greatest of the Italian cities. "I was sad when I saw 
Antwerp,” writes a Venetian ambassador, "for I saw Venice 
surpassed.” 

615. The Low Countries under Charles V ( 1515 - 1555 ). The 

Netherlands were part of those possessions over which the 
Emperor Charles V ruled by hereditary right. Toward the close 
of his reign he set up here the Inquisition with the object of sup¬ 
pressing the heresy of the reformers. Many persons perished at 
the stake and upon the scaffold, or were strangled, or buried 
alive. But when Charles retired to the monastery at Yuste the 
reformed doctrines were, notwithstanding all his efforts, far more 
widely spread and deeply rooted in the Netherlands than when 
he entered upon their extirpation by fire and sword. 

616. Accession of Philip II. In 1555, in the presence of an 
august and princely assembly at Brussels, Charles V abdicated the 
crown whose weight he could no longer bear, and placed it upon 
the head of his son Philip. What sort of man this son was we 
have already learned (sect. 580). 

Philip remained in the Netherlands four years, employing much 
of his time in devising means to root out the heresy of Protes¬ 
tantism. In 1559 he set sail for Spain, never to return. His ar¬ 
rival in the peninsula was celebrated by an auto-da-je at Valladolid, 
festivities which ended in the burning of thirteen persons whom 
the Inquisition had condemned as heretics. It was not delight at 
the sight of suffering that led Philip on his home-coming to be a 
spectator at these awful solemnities. He doubtless wished through 
his presence to give sanction to the work of the Holy Office and 
to impress all with the fact that unity of religion in Spain, as the 
necessary basis of peace and unity in the state, would be main¬ 
tained by him at any and every cost. 

617. The Iconoclasts (i 566 ). After Philip’s departure from 
the Netherlands the persecution of the Protestants went on with 
increased severity. The pent-up indignation of the people at 
length burst forth in uncontrollable fury. They gathered in great 
mobs and proceeded to demolish every image they could find in 


430 THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS [§ 61S 

the churches throughout the country. The monasteries, too, were 
sacked, their libraries burned, and the inmates driven from their 
cloisters. The tempest destroyed innumerable art treasures, which 
have been as sincerely mourned by the lovers of the beautiful as 
the burned rolls of the Alexandrian library have been lamented 
by the lovers of learning. 

618 . The Duke of Alva and William of Orange. The year 
following this outbreak Philip sent to the Netherlands a veteian 

Spanish army, headed by the 
Duke of Alva, a man after 
Philip’s own heart, deceitful, 
fanatical, and merciless. Alva 
was one of the ablest generals 
of the age, and the intelli¬ 
gence of his coming threw 
the provinces into a state of 
the greatest agitation and 
alarm. The eyes of all Neth- 
erlanders were now turned to 
Prince William of Orange, 
one of the leading noblemen 
of the lowlands, as their only 
deliverer. The Prince was 
a deeply religious man, and 
believed himself called of Heaven to the work of rescuing his 
country from Spanish tyranny. Up to this time he had been a 
Catholic, having been brought up as a page in the household of 
the Emperor Charles V. He now embraced Protestantism; but 
both as a Catholic and as a Protestant he opposed persecution on 
account of religious belief. His attitude here is worthy of special 
notice, for it set him apart from the great majority of his con¬ 
temporaries, and had a vast influence in shaping the policies and 
the destinies of the small yet great commonwealth of which he 
was to be the founder. 

William of Orange was a statesman rather than a soldier; yet 
even as a leader in war he evinced talent of a high order. The 



Fig. i 17. William of Orange (The 
Silent). (After a painting by Miere - 
velt , Amsterdam) 



§ 619] 


THE PACIFICATION OF GHENT 


431 


Spanish armies were commanded successively by the most dis¬ 
tinguished generals of Europe; but the prince coped ably with 
them all, and in the masterly service which he rendered his coun¬ 
try earned the title of "The Founder of Dutch Liberties.” 

619 . "The Spanish Fury”; the Pacification of Ghent (1576). 
The year 1576 was marked by a revolt of the Spanish soldiers on 
account of their not receiving their pay, the costly war having 
drained Philip’s treasury. The mutinous army marched through 
the land, pillaging city after city and paying themselves with the 
spoils. The beautiful city of Antwerp was ruined. The atrocities 
committed by the frenzied soldiers caused the outbreak to be 
called "The Spanish Fury.” The terrible state of affairs led to 
an alliance between Holland and Zealand and the other fifteen 
provinces of the Netherlands, known in history as the Pacification 
of Ghent. The resistance to the Spanish crown had thus far been 
carried on without concerted action among the several states. 

620 . The Treaty of Utrecht (1579). With the Spanish forces 
under the lead of commanders of distinguished ability, the war 
now went on with increased vigor,— fortune, with many vacil¬ 
lations, inclining to the side of the Spaniards. Disaffection arose 
among the Netherlanders, the outcome of which was the separation 
of the Northern and the Southern provinces. The seven Protes¬ 
tant states of the North, the chief of which were Holland and 
Zealand, by the Treaty of Utrecht, drew together in a permanent 
confederation, known as the Seven United Provinces of the Neth¬ 
erlands, with the Prince of Orange as stadtholder. In this league 
was laid the foundation of the renowned Dutch Republic, a new 
great sea-power, which for two hundred years was to be a potent 
force in European history. 

The ten Catholic provinces of the South, although they con¬ 
tinued their contest with Philip a little longer, ultimately sub¬ 
mitted to Spanish tyranny. Portions of these provinces were 
eventually absorbed by France, while the remainder after varied 
fortunes finally became the present kingdom of Belgium. With 
their history we shall have no further concern at present, but 
turn now to follow the fortunes of the rising republic of the North. 


432 


THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS [§ 621 


621 . The "Ban” and the "Apology” (i 580 -i 58 i). William 
of Orange was, of course, the animating spirit of the confederacy 
formed by the Treaty of Utrecht. In the eyes of Philip and his 
viceroys he appeared the sole obstacle in the way of the pacifica¬ 
tion of the provinces and their return to civil and ecclesiastical 
obedience. In vain had Philip sent against' him the ablest and 
most distinguished commanders of the age; in vain had he 
endeavored to detach him from the cause of his country by mag¬ 
nificent bribes of titles, offices, and fortune. 

Philip now resolved to employ public assassination 1 for the 
removal of the invincible general and the incorruptible patriot. 
He published a ban against the prince, declaring him an outlaw 
and "the chief disturber of all Christendom and especially of 
these Netherlands,” and offering anyone who would deliver him 
into his hands "dead or alive” pardon for any crime he might 
have committed, a title of nobility, and twenty-five thousand 
crowns in gold or in lands. 

The prince responded to the infamous edict by a remarkable 
paper entitled "The Apology of the Prince of Orange,” the most 
terrible arraignment of tyranny that was ever penned. The 
"Apology” was scattered throughout Europe, and everywhere 
produced a profound impression. 2 

622 . The Declaration of Independence (July 25 , 1581 ). 
The United Provinces had not yet formally renounced their 
allegiance to the Spanish crown. They now deposed Philip as 
their sovereign, broke in pieces his seal, and put forth to the 
world their memorable Declaration of Independence, a document 
as sacred to the Dutch as the Declaration of 1776 is to Americans. 


^ e use the expression public assassination in order to indicate a change in 
I hilip s methods. He had all along tried to get rid of the prince by private or secret 
assassination. Now his edict of outlawry makes the proposed assassination avowedly a 
public or governmental affair. To comprehend this proceeding we must bear in mind 
that in the sixteenth century assassination was not looked upon with that utter abhorrence 
with which we rightly regard it. In the petty states of Italy it was a weapon resorted to 
almost universally, and seemingly without any compunction of conscience, and even in 
the North many of the rulers at one time and another had recourse to it. 

2 "Apology ” originally meant defense before a court. From Plato’s " Apology of 
Socrates the name is given to a defense of a life before the court of public opinion. 


§ 623] 


ASSASSINATION OF THE PRINCE 


433 


The preamble contains these words: "Whereas God did not 
create the people slaves to their prince, to obey his commands, 
whether right or wrong, but rather the prince for the sake of the 
subjects, to govern them according to equity, to love and support 
them as a father his children or a shepherd his flock, and even at 

4 

the hazard of life to defend and preserve them; [therefore] when 
he does not behave thus, but, on the contrary, oppresses them, 
seeking opportunities to infringe their ancient customs and privi¬ 
leges, exacting from them slavish compliance, then he is no 
longer a prince, but a tyrant, and the subjects . . . may not 
only disallow his authority, but legally proceed to the choice of 
another prince for their defense.” 

This language was a wholly new dialect to the ears of Philip 
and of princes like him. They had never heard anything like it 
before uttered in such tones by a whole people. But it was a 
language destined to spread wonderfully and to become very 
common. We shall hear it often enough a little later in the era 
of the Political Revolution. It will become familiar speech in 
England, in America, in France,— almost everywhere. 

623. Assassination of the Prince of Orange (i584). "The 
ban soon bore fruit.” After several unsuccessful attempts had been 
made upon his life, the Prince of Orange was finally assassinated. 
Philip approved the murder as "an exploit of supreme value to 
Christendom.” The murderer was put to death with hideous tor¬ 
ture, but his heirs received the promised reward, being endowed 
with certain of the estates of the prince and honored by eleva¬ 
tion to the rank of the Spanish nobility. 

624. The Truce of 1609. Severe as was the blow sustained by 
the Dutch patriots in the death of the Prince of Orange, they did 
not lose heart but continued the struggle with admirable courage and 
steadfastness. Prince Maurice, a mere youth of seventeen years, 
the second son of William, was chosen stadtholder in his place. 
He proved himself a worthy son of the great chief and patriot. 

The war now went on with unabated fury. France as well as 
England became involved, both fighting against Philip, who was 
now laying claims to the crowns of both these countries. The 


434 


THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS [§ 625 


destruction of the Spanish Armada in 1588 marked the turning 
point, yet not the end. But Europe finally grew weary of the 
seemingly interminable struggle, and the Spanish commanders 
becoming convinced that it was impossible to reduce the Dutch 
rebels to obedience by force of arms, negotiations were entered 
into which issued in the celebrated Truce of 1609 . This truce 
was in reality an acknowledgment by Spain of the independence 
of the United Provinces of the Netherlands, although the Spanish 
king was so unwilling to admit the fact of his inability to reduce 
the rebel states to submission that the treaty was termed simply 
"a truce for twelve years.” Spain did not formally acknowledge 
their independence until forty years afterwards, in the Peace of 
Westphalia, at the end of the Thirty Years’ War. 

625. Influence of the Establishment of the Dutch Republic 
upon both the Religious and the Political Revolution. The 
successful issue of the revolt in the Netherlands meant much for 
the cause of the reformers. The Protestant Lowlands formed a 
sort of strategic point in the great fight between Catholicism and 
Protestantism. The loss of this ground might have proved fatal 
to the Protestant cause. 

The establishment of the Dutch Republic had also great signifi¬ 
cance for the Political Revolution. In the seventeenth century it 
was Holland that was the foremost champion of the cause of 
political freedom against Bourbon despotism. It was a worthy 
descendant of William the Silent 1 who, at one of the most critical 
moments of English history, when Englishmen were struggling 
doubtfully against Stuart tyranny, came to their help and rescued 
English liberties from the peril in which they lay (sect. 696 ). 

References. Motley, J. L., The Rise of the Dutch Republic , 3 vols., and 
History of the United Netherlands , 4 vols. These histories by Motley are clas¬ 
sical, but they lack in judicial spirit. They should be read in connection with 
Blok, J. P., History of the People of the Netherlands , 3 vols. Young, A., Histor\> 
of the Netherlands. Harrison, F., William the Silent. Putnam, R., William 
the Silent , 2 vols. For New Netherlands, consult Fiske, J., The Dutch and 
Quaker Colonies in America, 2 vols. 

1 The affable and eloquent prince was nicknamed "the Silent” because as a young 
man, accidentally learning a dangerous secret, he showed no sign of his concern. 


CHAPTER LVIII 

THE HUGUENOT WARS IN FRANCE 

(1562-1629) 

626. The Reformation in France. Before Luther posted his 
ninety-five theses at Wittenberg there had appeared in the Uni¬ 
versity of Paris and elsewhere in France men who from the study 
of the Scriptures had come to entertain opinions very like those 
of the German reformer. The movement thus begun received a 
fresh impulse from the uprising in Germany under Luther. The 
new doctrines found adherents especially among the lesser mobility 
and the burgher class, and struck deep root in the south,—the 
region of the old Albigensian heresy. 

627. King Francis II, Catherine de’ Medici, and the Guises. 
An understanding of the religious wars in France requires that we 
first acquaint ourselves with the chief earlier actors in the 
drama. The drama opens with F'rancis II (1559-1560), a Valois 
king, 1 on the French throne. His wife was the young and 
fascinating Mary Stuart of Scotland. Francis was a weak-minded 
boy of sixteen years. The power behind the throne was the 
chiefs of the family of the Guises, who were zealous Catholics, 
and the king’s mother, Catherine de’ Medici. 

Catherine was an Italian. She seems to have been almost or 
quite destitute of religious convictions of any kind. She was 
determined to rule, and this she did by holding the balance of 
power between the two religious parties. When it suited her pur¬ 
pose, she favored the Protestants; and when it suited her purpose 
better, she favored the Catholics. Through her counsels and poli¬ 
cies she contributed largely to make France wretched through the 
reigns of her three sons and to bring her house to a miserable end. 

1 The Valois kings of the sixteenth century were Louis XII (1498-1515), Francis I 
(1515-1547), Henry II (1547-1559), Francis II (1559-1560), Charles IX (1560-1574), 
and Henry III (1574-1589). 


435 


436 


THE HUGUENOT WARS IN FRANCE [§ 628 


628. The Huguenot 1 Leaders: the Bourbon Princes and 
Admiral Coligny. Opposed to the Guises were the Bourbon 
princes, Antony, king of Navarre, and Louis, Prince of Conde. 
Next after the brothers of Francis II, they were heirs to the 
French throne. 

Gaspard de Coligny, Admiral of France, was "the military hero 
of the French Reformation.” Early in life he had embraced the 
doctrines of the reformers, and remained to the last the trusted 
and consistent, though ill-starred, champion of the Protestants. 
His is the most heroic figure that emerges from the unutterable 
confusion of the times. 

The foregoing notice of parties and their chiefs will suffice to 
render intelligible the events which we have now to narrate. 

629j The Beginning of the War. After the short reign of 
Francis II his brother Charles came to the throne as Charles IX. 
He was only ten years of age, so the queen mother assumed the 
government in his name. Pursuing her favorite maxim to rule 
by setting one party as a counterpoise to the other, she gave the 
Bourbon princes a place in the government, and also by a royal 
edict gave the Huguenots a limited toleration and forbade their 
further persecution. It was the violation by the adherents of the 
Duke of Guise of this edict of toleration that finally caused the 
growing animosities of the two parties to break out in civil war. 
Philip II of Spain sent an army to aid the Catholics, while Eliza¬ 
beth of England extended help to the Huguenots. 

630. The Massacre of St. Bartholomew’s Day (August 24, 
1572). Fight years after the outbreak of the war, Catherine 
de’ Medici, as a means of cementing a treaty which had been 
arranged between the two parties, proposed that the Princess 
Margaret, the sister of Charles, should be given in marriage to 
Henry of Bourbon, the new young king of Navarre. The an¬ 
nouncement of the proposed alliance caused great rejoicing among 
Catholics and Protestants alike, and the chiefs of both parties 
crowded to Paris to attend the wedding. 

1 The French Protestants were called Huguenots, a name given by their enemies. 
The word is of uncertain derivation. 


§ 630] THE MASSACRE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW 


437 


Before the festivities which followed the nuptial ceremonies 
were over, the world was shocked by one of the most awful 
crimes recorded in history,— the massacre of the Huguenots in 
Paris on St. Bartholomew's Day. The circumstances which led to 
this fearful tragedy were these. Among the Protestant nobles who 
came up to Paris to attend the wedding was Admiral Coligny. 
Jealous of his influence over her son, Catherine resolved upon 
the death of the admiral. The attempt miscarried, Coligny 
receiving only a slight wound from the assassins ball. The 
Huguenots rallied about their wounded chief with loud threats 
of revenge. Catherine, driven on by insane fear, now determined 
upon the death of all Huguenots in Paris as the only measure of 
safety. The young king at first refused to sign the decree for the 
massacre; but overcome at last by the representations of his 
mother, he exclaimed, "I consent, provided not one Huguenot be 
left alive in France to reproach me with the deed.” 

A little past the hour of midnight on St. Bartholomew’s Day, 
at a preconcerted signal,— the tolling of a bell,— the massacre 
began. Coligny was one of the first victims. For three days and 
nights the massacre went on within the city. With the capital 
cleared of Huguenots, orders were issued to the principal cities 
of France to purge themselves in like manner of heretics. In 
many places the decree was disobeyed; but in others the orders 
were carried out, and frightful massacres took place. The number 
of victims throughout the country is unknown; estimates differ 
widely, running from two thousand to a hundred thousand. 

The massacre of St. Bartholomew raised a cry of execration 
in almost every part of the civilized world, among Catholics 
and Protestants alike. Philip II, however, is said to have received 
the news with unfeigned joy; while Pope Gregory XIII caused 
a Te Deum, in commemoration of the event, to be sung in the 
church of St. Mark in Rome. Respecting this it should in justice 
be said that Catholic writers maintain that the Pope acted under 
a misconception of the facts, it having been represented to him 
that the massacre resulted from a plot of the Huguenots against 
the royal family of France and the Roman Catholic Church. 


THE HUGUENOT WARS IN FRANCE 


[§ 631 


438 


631. Accession of Henry IV (i589). Instead of exterminat¬ 
ing heresy in France, the massacre only served to rouse the Hu¬ 
guenots to a more determined defense of their faith. So the country 
was kept in a state of turmoil and war. Finally, in 1589 , the assas¬ 
sination of the reigning king (Henry III) brought to an end the 
House of Valois. Henry of Bourbon, king of Navarre, who for 

many years had been the most 
prominent leader of the Hugue¬ 
nots, now came to the throne as 
the fjrst of the Bourbon kings. 
His accession lifted into promi¬ 
nence one of the most celebrated 
royal houses in European history. 
The political story of France, and 
indeed of Europe, from this time 
on to the French Revolution, and 
for some time after that, is in 
great part the story of the House 
of Bourbon. 

Hemy did not secure without 
a struggle the crown that was his 
by right. The nation, still mainly 
Catholic, was not ready to ac¬ 
quiesce in the accession to the 
French throne of a Protestant 
prince, and he the leader and champion of the hated Huguenots. 
The Catholics declared for Cardinal Bourbon, Henry’s uncle, and 
France was thus kept in the swirl of civil war. 

632. Henry IV turns Catholic ( 1593 ). After the war had gone 
on for about four years the quarrel was closed, for the time being, 
by Henry’s becoming a Catholic. He was personally liked, even 
by the Catholic chiefs, and he was well aware that it was only his 
Huguenot faith that prevented their being his hearty supporters. 
Hence his resolution to remove, by changing his religion, the sole 
obstacle in the way of their ready loyalty, and thus to bring 
peace and quiet to distracted France. 



Fig. m 8. Henry IV, King of 
France. (From a painting by 
F. Goltzius ) 




§ 633] 


THE EDICT OF NANTES 


439 


633. The Edict of Nantes ( 1598 ). As soon as Henry had 
become the fully acknowledged king of France, he gave himself 
to the work of composing the affairs of his kingdom. The most 
noteworthy of the measures he adopted to this end was the pub¬ 
lication of the celebrated Edict of Nantes. By this decree the 
Huguenots were secured perfect freedom of conscience and prac¬ 
tical freedom of worship. All public offices and employments 
were opened to them the same as to Catholics. Moreover, they 
were allowed to retain possession of a number of fortified towns 
as pledges of good faith and as places of defense. Among these 
places was the important city of La Rochelle. 

The granting of this edict is memorable for the reason that it 
was the first formal recognition by a great European state of the 
principle of religious toleration and equality. Here, for the first 
time since the triumph of Christianity over paganism in the 
Roman Empire, a great nation makes a serious effort to try to 
get along with two creeds in the state. It was almost a century 
before even England went as far in the way of granting freedom 
of conscience and of worship. 

634. Character of Henry XV’s Reign; his Plans and Death. 
With the temporary hushing of the long-continued quarrels of 
the Catholics and Protestants, France entered upon such a period 
of prosperity as she had not known for many years. Henry’s 
paternal solicitude for his humblest subjects secured for him the 
title of Father of his People. In devising and carrying out his 
measures of reform, Henry was aided by one of the most prudent 
and sagacious advisers that ever strengthened the hands of a 
prince,— the illustrious Duke of Sully. 

Toward the close of his reign Henry, feeling strong in his 
resources and secure in his power, began to revolve in his mind 
vast projects for the aggrandizement of France and the weakening 
of her old enemy, the House of Hapsburg, in both its branches. 1 

l In connection with his designs against the House of Hapsburg, Henry is represented 
in Sully’s Memoirs as having had in mind a most magnificent scheme, — the organization 
of all the Christian states of Europe into a great confederation or commonwealth, and 
the abolition of war by the creation of an international peace tribunal. This scheme is 
known as the " Grand Design.” 


440 


[§ 635 


THE HUGUENOT WARS IN FRANCE 

He was making great preparations for war, when the dagger of 
a fanatic named Ravaiilac cut short his life and plans ( 1610 ). 

635. Louis XIII (i6io-i643); Cardinal Richelieu and his 
Policy. The reign of Henry’s son and successor, Louis XIII, 
was rendered notable by the ability of his chief minister, Cardinal 
Richelieu ( 1585 - 1642 ), the Wolsey of France, one of the most 

remarkable characters of the seven¬ 
teenth century. For the space of 
eighteen years this ecclesiastic was the 
actual sovereign of France, and swayed 
the destinies not only of that country 
but, it might almost be said, those of 
Europe as well. 

Richelieu’s policy was twofold : first, 
to render the authority of the French 
king absolute in France; second, to 
make the power of France supieme in 
Europe. 

636. Siege and Capture of La 
Rochelle (1627-1628) ; Political Power 
of the Huguenots broken. To reach 
his first end Richelieu resolved to 
break down the political power of the 
Huguenot chiefs, who,. "Protestants 
first and Frenchmen afterwards,” were constantly challenging the 
royal authority and threatening the dismemberment of France. 
Accordingly he led in person an army to the siege of La Rochelle, 
which the Huguenots were planning to make the capital of an 
independent Protestant commonwealth. After a gallant resistance 
of more than a year the city was compelled to open its gates. 

The Huguenots maintained the struggle a few months longer 
in the south of France, but were finally everywhere reduced to 
submission. The result of the war was the complete destruction 
of the political power of the French Protestants. A treaty of peace 
called the Edict of Grace ( 1629 ) left them, however, freedom of 
worship, according to the provisions of the Edict of Nantes. 



Fig. 119. Cardinal Riche¬ 
lieu. (After the painting by 
Philippe de Champagne) 
















§ 637] 


RICHELIEU 


44 r 


This treaty properly marks the close of the religious wars which 
had now distressed France, intermittently, for two generations. 

637. Richelieu and the Thirty Years’ War. When Cardinal 
Richelieu came to the head of affairs in France there was going 
on in Germany the Thirty Years’ War. Although Richelieu had 
just crushed French Protestantism, he now gave assistance to 
the Protestant German princes because their success meant the 
division of Germany and the humiliation of Austria. At first he 
extended aid in the form of subsidies to Gustavus Adolphus, king 
of Sweden, who had become the champion of the German Prot¬ 
estants ; but later he sent the armies of France to take direct part 
in the struggle. 

Richelieu did not live to see the end either of the Thirty Years’ 
War or of that which he had begun with Spain; but his policy,, 
carried out by others, finally resulted, as we shall learn hereafter, 
in the humiliation of both branches of the House of Hapsburg and 
the lifting of France to the first place among the powers of Europe. 

References. Baird, H. M., The Huguenots and Henry of A T avarre and 
Theodore Beza. Besant, W., Gaspard de Coligny. Willert, P. F., Henry of 
Navarre . HASSALL, A., The French People , chaps, x and xi. Lodge, R., Richelieu.. 
Parkman, F., Pioneers of France in the New World (for the Huguenots in 
Florida and Brazil, and Champlain and his associates). See also Fiske, J. t 
New England and New France , chaps, i-iii. 




CHAPTER LIX 


THE THIRTY YEARS’ WAR 
(1618-1648) 

638. Nature and Causes of the War. The long and calamitous 
Thirty Years’ War was the last great combat between Protestant¬ 
ism and Catholicism in Europe. It started as a struggle between 
the Protestant and the Catholic princes of Germany, but grad¬ 
ually involved almost all the European states, degenerating at 
last into a shameful and heartless struggle for power and territory. 

The real cause of the war was the enmity existing between the 
German Protestants and Catholics. But if a more specific cause 
be sought, it will be found in the character of the articles of the 
celebrated Religious Peace of Augsburg (sect. 578 ). The Catho¬ 
lics and Protestants did not interpret alike the provisions of that 
compromise treaty. Each party by its encroachments gave the 
other occasion for complaint. The Protestants at length formed 
for their mutual protection a league called the Evangelical Union. 
In opposition to the Union, the Catholics formed a confederation 
known as the Holy League. All Germany was thus prepared to 
burst into the flames of a religious war. 

639. The Bohemian Period of the War ( 16 I 8 -I 623 ). The 
flames that were to desolate Germany for .a generation were first 
kindled in Bohemia. The Protestants there rose in revolt against 
their Catholic king and drove out the Jesuits. The insurrection, 
however, was soon suppressed by the newly elected Emperor 
Ferdinand II, who was supported by the Catholic League. The 
leaders of the revolt were executed, and the reformed faith in 
Bohemia was almost uprooted. 

640. The Danish Period ( 1625 - 1629 ). Protestantism in Ger¬ 
many seemed threatened with extinction. The situation filled 
not only the Protestant German princes but all the Protestant 

442 


§ 641] 


THE SWEDISH PERIOD 


443 


powers of the North with the greatest alarm. Christian IV, king 
of Denmark, supported by England and the Dutch Netherlands, 
threw himself into the struggle—which was still being carried 
on in a desultory manner—as the champion of German Protes¬ 
tantism. On the side of the Catholics were two noted com¬ 
manders,—Tilly, the leader of the forces of the Holy League, 
and Wallenstein, a wealthy 
Bohemian nobleman, who 
was the commander of the 
imperial army. What is 
known as the Danish period 
of the war now began. 

The war proved disastrous, 
in the main, to the Protes¬ 
tant allies, and Christian IV 
was finally constrained to 
conclude a treaty of peace 
with the Emperor and retire 
from the struggle. 

641. The Swedish Period 
(1630-1635). Gustavus Adol¬ 
phus, king of Sweden, with a 
veteran and enthuiastic army 

of sixteen thousand Swedes, now appeared in North Germany as 
the champion of the dispirited and leaderless Protestants. Various 
motives had concurred in leading him thus to intervene in the 
struggle. He was urged to this course by his strong Protestant 
convictions and sympathies. Furthermore, the progress of the 
imperial arms in North Germany was imperiling Swedish interests 
in the Baltic and threatening to establish the supremacy of the 
Austrian Hapsburgs 1 over what was regarded by the sovereigns of 
Sweden as a Swedish lake. 

A shocking episode of the Swedish period of the war was the 
sack of the city of Magdeburg by the imperial army under Tilly. 
Thousands of the inhabitants perished miserably. Tilly wrote to 

1 Emperor Ferdinand was the head of the House of Hapsburg. 



Fig. i2o. Gustavus Adolphus. (From 
a painting by Vandyke) 




444 


THE THIRTY YEARS’ WAR 


[§ 641 


Ferdinand that since the fall of Troy and Jerusalem such a vic¬ 
tory had never been seen. "I am sincerely sorry,” he adds, 
''that the ladies of your imperial family could not have been 
present as spectators.” 

The cruel fate of Magdeburg excited the alarm of the Protes¬ 
tant princes, and they now gave Gustavus, what they had hith¬ 
erto jealously withheld, wholehearted support. Tilly was twice 
defeated, and in his last battle fatally wounded. In the death of 
Tilly, Ferdinand lost his most trustworthy general. 

The imperial cause appeared desperate. There was but one 
man in Germany who could turn the tide of victory that was run¬ 
ning so strongly in favor of the Swedish monarch. That man was 
Wallenstein, whom Ferdinand had recently dismissed from his 
service, but to whom he now turned. Wallenstein agreed to raise 
an army, provided his control of it should be absolute. Ferdinand 
was constrained to grant all that his old general demanded. Wal¬ 
lenstein now raised his standard, to which rallied the adventurers 
not only of Germany but of all Europe as well. The array was a 
motley host, bound together by no bonds of patriotism or convic¬ 
tions, but only by the spell and prestige of the name of Wallenstein. 

With an army of forty thousand men obedient to his commands, 
Wallenstein risked a battle with the Swedes on the memorable 
field of Liitzen, in Saxony. The Swedes won the day, but lost 
their leader and sovereign ( 1632 ). 

We may sum up the results of Gustavus Adolphus’ interven¬ 
tion in the Thirty Years’ War in these words of the historian 
Gindely: ''He averted the overthrow with which Protestantism 
was threatened in Germany.” 

Notwithstanding the death of their great king and commander, 
the Swedes did not withdraw from the war. Hence the struggle 
went on, the advantage being for the most part with the Protes¬ 
tant allies. Ferdinand, at just this time, was embarrassed by the 
suspicious movements of his general, Wallenstein. Becoming con¬ 
vinced that he was meditating the betrayal of the imperial cause, 
the Emperor caused him to be assassinated. This event marks 
very nearly the end of the Swedish period of the war. 

















































































§ 642 ] 


THE SWEDISH-FRENCH PERIOD 


445 


642 . The Swedish-French Period (i635-i648). Had it not 
been for the selfish and ambitious interference of France, the 
woeful war which had now desolated Germany for half a genera¬ 
tion might here have come to an end, for both sides were weary 
of it. But Richelieu was not willing that the war should end until 
the House of Austria was completely humbled (sect. 637). Ac¬ 
cordingly he encouraged the Swedes to carry on the war, promis¬ 
ing them the aid of the French armies. 

The war thus lost in large part its original character of a con¬ 
tention between the Catholic and the Protestant princes of Ger¬ 
many, and became a political struggle between the House of 
Austria and the House of Bourbon, in which the former was 
fighting for existence, the latter for aggrandizement. 

And so the miserable war went on year after year. It had 
become a heartless and conscienceless struggle for spoils. The 
Swedes fought to fasten their hold upon the mouths of the Ger¬ 
man rivers, the French to secure a grasp upon the Rhine lands. 
The earlier actors in the drama at length passed from the scene, 
but their parts were carried on by others. 

643 . The Peace of Westphalia (i 648 ). The war was finally 
ended by the celebrated Peace of Westphalia. The chief articles 
of this important peace may be made to fall under two heads,— 
those relating to territorial boundaries and those respecting 
religion. 

As to the first, these cut short in three directions the actual or 
nominal limits of the Holy Roman Empire. Switzerland and the 
United Netherlands were severed from it; for though both of 
these countries had been for a long time practically independent 
of the Empire, this independence had never been acknowledged 
in any formal way. The claim of France to the three bishoprics 
of Metz, Toul, and Verdun in Lorraine, which places she had held 
for about a century, was confirmed, and all Alsace, s£ve the free 
city of Strasburg, was given to her. 

Sweden, already a great maritime power, was given territories 
in North Germany—Western Pomerania and other lands—which 
greatly enhanced her influence by giving her command of the 


THE THIRTY YEARS’ WAR 


[§ 644 


446 

mouths of three important German rivers,— the Oder, the Elbe, 
and the Weser. But these lands were not given to the Swedish 
king in full sovereignty; they still remained a part of the Ger¬ 
manic body, and the king of Sweden through his relation to 
them became a prince of the Empire and entitled to a seat in 
the German Diet. 

The changes within the Empire were many, and some of them 
important. Brandenburg, the nucleus of a future great state, 
especially received considerable additions of territory. She got 
Eastern Pomerania and also valuable ecclesiastical lands. 

The different states of the Empire—they numbered over four 
hundred, counting the free imperial cities—were left virtually 
independent of the imperial authority. This continued the Em¬ 
pire as merely a loose confederation, and postponed to a distant 
future the unification of the German peoples. 

The articles respecting religion were even more important than 
those which established the metes and bounds of the different 
states. Catholics, Lutherans, and Calvinists were all put upon the 
same footing. Every prince, with some reservations, was to have 
the right to make his religion the religion of his people and to 
banish all who refused to adopt the established creed; but such 
nonconformists were to have five years in which to emigrate. This 
arrangement was known as the princes’ "Right of Reformation” 
and the subjects’ "Right of Emigration.” 1 

These were some of the most important provisions of the noted 
Peace of Westphalia. For more than two centuries they formed 
the fundamental law of Germany, and established a balance of 
power between the European states which, though it was disre¬ 
garded and disturbed by Louis XIV of France, was in general 
maintained until the great upheaval of the French Revolution. 

644 . Effects of the War upon Germany. It is impossible to 
picture the Wretched condition in which the Thirty Years’ War left 
Germany. When the struggle began, the population of the country 


1 The history of the Palatinate illustrates the workings of this provision of the 
peace : in the space of sixty years the people of that principality were compelled by their 
successive rulers to change their religion four times. But this was an exceptional case. 


§ 645 ] 


EFFECTS OF THE WAR 


447 


was thirty millions; when it ended, twelve millions. Two thirds 
of the personal property had been destroyed. Many of the once 
large and flourishing cities were reduced to "mere shells.” The 
Duchy of Wiirtemberg, which had half a million inhabitants at 
the commencement of the war, at its close had barely fifty thou¬ 
sand. The once powerful Hanseatic League was virtually broken 
up. On every hand were the charred remains of the hovels of the 
peasants and the palaces of the nobility. Vast districts lay waste 
without an inhabitant. The very soil in many regions had reverted - 
to its primitive wildness. The lines of commerce were broken, 
and some trades and industries swept quite out of existence. 

The effects upon the fine arts, upon science, learning, and morals, 
were even more lamentable. Painting, sculpture, and architecture 
had perished. The cities which had been the home of all these 
arts lay in ruins. Poetry had ceased to be cultivated. Education 
was neglected. Moral law was forgotten. Vice, nourished by the 
licentious atmosphere of the camp, reigned supreme. Thus civi¬ 
lization in Germany, which had begun to develop with so much 
promise, received a check from which it did not begin to recover, 
so benumbed were the very senses of men, for a generation and 
more. 

There was at least one offset to so much evil. The excesses and 
horrors of the war inspired the eminent Dutch jurist, Hugo 
Grotius (1583-1645), to write his great work, The Laws of War 
and Peace , a work that has been pronounced by high authority 
" the most beneficent of all volumes ever written not claiming divine 
inspiration.” A chief aim of the work was to reform the laws 
of war, to lessen the atrocities of warfare, and to set limits to the 
"rights” claimed by the victor. The work has had such a pro¬ 
found influence upon the development of the law of nations that 
Grotius is regarded as the founder of international law. 

645 . Conclusion. The Peace of Westphalia is a prominent 
landmark in universal history. It marks the end of the Reforma¬ 
tion period and the beginning of that of the Political Revolution. 
Henceforth, speaking broadly, men will fight for constitutions, 
not for creeds. We shall find them more intent on questions 


448 


THE THIRTY YEARS’ WAR 


[§ 645 


of civil government and political rights than on questions of 
Church government and religious dogmas. We shall not often see 
one nation attacking another, or one party in a nation assaulting 
another party, on account of a difference in religious opinion. 

But in setting the Peace of Westphalia to mark the end of the 
Era of Religious Wars, we do not mean to convey the idea that 
men had come to embrace the beneficent doctrine of religious 
toleration. As a matter of fact, no real toleration had yet been 
reached,—nothing save the semblance of toleration. The long 
conflict of a century and more, and the vicissitudes of fortune, 
which today gave one party the power of the persecutor and 
tomorrow made the same sect the victims of persecution, had 
simply forced all to the practical conclusion that they must toler¬ 
ate one another,— that one sect must not attempt to put another 
down by force. But it has required the broadening and liberaliz¬ 
ing lessons of the two centuries and more that have since passed 
to bring men to see, even in part, that the thing they must do 
is the very thing they ought to do. 

With this single word of caution we now pass to the study of 
the Era of the Political Revolution, a period characterized in 
particular by the growth of divine-right kingship and by the great 
struggle between despotic and liberal principles of government. 

References. Gindely, A., History of the Thirty Years' JVar, 2 vols. (the 
best history for English readers; chaps, x and xi of vol. ii, bearing upon the 
peace negotiations, are of special interest). Fletcher, C. R. L., Gustavus 
Adolphus and the Struggle of Protestantism for Existence. Gardiner, S. R., The 
Thirty Years' War. Henderson, E. F., A Short History of Germany , vol. i, 
chaps, xvii and xviii. Bryce, J., The Holy Roman Empire , chaps, xviii and xix. 
h ISHER, G. P., Ihstoiy of the Reformation , chap, xv (summarizes from the 
Protestant side the results of the Reformation); Balmes, J., European Civili¬ 
zation; Protestantism and Catholicism compared; and Spaulding, M. J., The 
History of the Protestant Reformation , Parts I and II (contain discussions of the 
subject from the Catholic point of view). 


FOURTH PERIOD. THE ERA OF THE 
POLITICAL REVOLUTION 

(From the Peace of Westphalia (1648) to the Treaty of Versailles (1919)) 

/. THE AGE OF ABSOLUTE MONARCHY 

(1648-1789) 

CHAPTER LX 

x 

INTRODUCTORY: THE DOCTRINE OF THE DIVINE RIGHT OF 
KINGS AND THE MAXIMS OF THE ENLIGHTENED DESPOTS 

646. The Theory of the Divine Right of Kings. Throughout 
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries there was widely held a 
theory of government which during that period probably had as 
great an influence upon the historical development in Europe as 
the theory of the Empire and the Papacy exerted during the 
Middle Ages. This theory is known as the Divine Right of Kings. 

According to this theory the nation is a great family with the 
king as its divinely appointed head. The duty of the king is to 
govern like a father; the duty of the people is to obey their 
Ling even as children obey their parents. If the king does wrong, 
is cruel, unjust, this is simply the misfortune of his people; under 
no circumstances is it right for them to rebel agaiust his authority, 
any more than for children to rise against their father. The king 
is responsible to God alone, and to God the people, quietly sub¬ 
missive, must leave the avenging of all their wrongs . 1 

"Kings are the ministers of God”—it is the eloquent Bos- 
suet, the court chaplain of Louis XIV, who speaks—"and 

1 All that the people can do when the king misuses his authority is to petition him 
to amend his fault ” — and " to pray to God.” 

449 


450 


THE DIVINE RIGHT OF KINGS 


[§647 


his vicegerents on the earth.” "The throne of a king is not the 
throne of a man, but the throne of God himself. . . . The per¬ 
son of kings is sacred, and it is sacrilege to harm them.” "They 
are gods, and partake in some fashion of the divine independ¬ 
ence.” 

Before the close of the period upon which we here enter, we 
shall see how this theory of the divine right of kings worked out 
in practice,—how dear it cost both kings and people, and how' 
the people by the strong logic of revolution demonstrated that 
they have a divine and inalienable right to govern themselves. 

647. History of the Doctrine of the Divine Right of Kings. 
This theory that kings rule by divine right has a history well 
worth tracing. Among primitive peoples, like the early Greeks, 
we find the king ruling by divine right,—by right of his descent 
from the gods. In Egypt the Pharaoh was regarded as partaking 
of the divine nature. In ancient Judea the king was the Lord’s 
anointed, and ruled as his vicegerent on earth. In the days of the 
Roman emperors their subjects, especially in the East, were prone 
to regard the head of the Empire as set apart from ordinary 
men. They built temples in honor of " the divine Caesar.” 

But to trace the origin of the doctrine as applied to kings of 
modern times, we need not go farther back than to the establish¬ 
ment of the mediaeval Papacy. The popes, as we have learned, 
ruled by what may be termed divine right. All acknowledged 
their office and authority to be of divine origin and appointment. 
But when the emperors of German origin got into controversy 
with the popes in regard to the relation of the imperial to the 
papal power, then it was that the supporters of the emperors 
framed the counter theory of the divine origin of the imperial 
authority. Thus Dante in his De Monarchia maintains that the 
Emperor rules as much by divine right as does the Pope. Then 
later in the fourteenth century, after the Empire had been 
practically destroyed by the Papacy and the kings had taken up 
the fight against the Papal See, their supporters naturally began 
to preach the doctrine of the divine nature of the royal authority. 
This was the starting point of the theory in its modern form. 


§ 648 ] 


CHARACTER OF THE SOVEREIGNS 


451 


When finally the Reformation came and with it even still 
keener strife between the lay rulers of the revolted nations and 
the Roman See, then the theory of the divine nature of the royal 
power received perforce a great expansion. For when the Pope 
excommunicated a heretic king and exhorted his subjects to take 
up arms against him, then the royalist writers and preachers pro¬ 
claimed more loudly than ever the doctrine of the divine right of 
princes and the wickedness of disobedience and rebellion. Fostered 
in this way, the doctrine of the sacred character of kingship and 
the virtue of passive obedience in the subject struck deep and 
firm root. 

648. Character of the Absolute Sovereigns and their 
Relation to the Political Revolution. What use did the kings 
make of their vast and unlimited authority ? As a class, they made 
a betrayal of the great trust. Too many of them acted upon the 
maxim of Louis XIV of France,—"Self-aggrandizement is at once 
the noblest and the most agreeable occupation of kings.” They 
seemed to think that their subjects were made for their use and 
that their kingdoms were their personal property. War became a 
royal pastime. A great part of the bloody wars of the seventeenth 
and eighteenth centuries, which centuries may be regarded as 
covering roughly the age of absolute monarchy, were wars that 
originated in frivolous personal jealousies, in wicked royal ambi¬ 
tions, or in disputes respecting dynastic succession. So generally 
did the wars of this period spring from questions of the latter 

nature, that by some historians the age is called the Era of Dynas- 

« 

tic Wars. 

Now all this misuse of royal power, all these unholy wars with 
their trains of attendant evils, did much to discredit divine-right 
kingship and to bring in government by the people. " Bad kings 
help us,” Emerson affirms, "if only they are bad enough.” Many 
of the kings of this period were bad enough to be supremely 
helpful. It was during this age of the kings that the forces 
set loose by the Renaissance and the Reformation engendered 
the tempest which overwhelmed forever divine-right kingship and 
its gilded appendage of privileged aristocracy. 


452 


THE DIVINE RIGHT OF KINGS 


[§ 649 


649. The Enlightened Despots. But not all the kings of this 
age were imbecile or wicked. There were among them many wise 
and benevolent rulers. Especially during the latter part of the 
eighteenth century did there appear monarchs known as the 
Enlightened Despots, who, under the influence of the teachings 
of French philosophy, came to entertain reasonable views of 
their duties and of their obligations to their subjects. 

These sovereigns did not give up the idea that unlimited mon¬ 
archy is the best form of government and that the people should 
have no part in public affairs. They sincerely believed that the 
power of the king should be unlimited, but they emphasized the 
doctrine that this powder should be exercised solely in the interest 
of the people. Thus the idea of the royal power being a trust, the 
royal office a stewardship, was made prominent. The king became 
the servant of his people. 

Prominent among the sovereigns deemed worthy a place among 
the Enlightened Despots are Catherine the Great of Russia and 
Frederick the Great of Prussia. Concerning them and their work 
we shall have something to say in later chapters. It will suffice 
here if we simply observe that the issue of this great experi¬ 
ment in government illustrated anew what had been demon¬ 
strated by the rule of the Tyrants in the cities of ancient Greece, 
and by that of the Caesars at Rome,— namely, that absolute power 
cannot safely be lodged in the hands of a single person. It is 
certain sooner or later to be misused. 

As it has been well put, absolute power in a single person is a 
good thing when joined with perfect wisdom and perfect good¬ 
ness. But unfortunately these qualifications of the ideal autocrat 
are seldom found united in the same individual, and still less 
seldom are they transmitted from father to son. It is at just this 
point that absolute hereditary monarchy, as a practical form of 
government, breaks down beyond hope and without remedy. 

References. Figgis, J. N., The Theory of the Divine Right of Kings. An 
able and interesting discussion of the subject. The book has a good bibli- 
ography. Gairdner, J., and Spedding, J., Studies in English Histoiy: con¬ 
tains a valuable essay entitled, " The Divine Right of Kings.” 


CHAPTER LXI 

THE ASCENDANCY OF FRANCE UNDER LOUIS XIV 

(1643-1715) 

650. Louis XIV as the Typical Divine-Right King. Louis 
XIV of France stands as the representative of divine-right mon¬ 
archy. He shall himself expound to us his conception of govern¬ 
ment . 1 These are his words : "Kings are absolute lords ; to them 
belongs naturally the full and free disposal of all the property of 
their subjects, whether they be churchmen or laymen.” " For sub¬ 
jects to rise against their prince, however wicked and oppressive he 
may be, is always infinitely criminal. God, who has given kings 
to men, has willed that they should be revered as his lieutenants, 
and has reserved to himself alone the right to review their 
conduct. His will is that he who is born a subject should obey 
without question.” 

The doctrine here set forth Louis is said to have expressed in 
this terser form: UEtat , c’est moi (I am the State). He may 
never have uttered these exact words, but the famous epigram at 
least embodies perfectly his ideas of kingship. In his own view 
he was by divine commission the sole legislator, judge, and execu¬ 
tive of the French nation. 

This theory of government was indeed, as we have seen, no 
novel doctrine to the Europe of the seventeenth century; but 
Louis was such an ideal autocrat that somehow he made autocratic 
government attractive. Other rulers imitated him, and it became 
the prevailing theory that kings have a "divine right” to rule, and 
that the people should have no part at all in government. 

1 It should be noted that Louis’ subjects, at least the great majority of them, also 
believed in government by one, — and not without reason. They had had sorry experi¬ 
ence with government by many, under the regime of the nobles. Of government by all, 
by themselves, it was not possible for them to have any clear conception, if any conception 
at all. It needed a hundred years and more of autocratic misrule and oppression to call 
into existence that revolutionary idea. 


453 


454 


FRANCE UNDER LOUIS XIV 


[§ 651 


651. The Administration of Mazarin (i 643 -i 66 i). The reli¬ 
gious war in Germany was still in progress when, in 1643, 
Louis XIII died, leaving the vast authority which his great min¬ 
ister Cardinal Richelieu had done so much to consolidate, as an 
inheritance to his little son Louis, a child of five years. 

During the prince’s minor¬ 
ity the government was in the 
hands of his mother, Anne of 
Austria, as regent. She chose 
as her chief minister an Italian 
ecclesiastic, Cardinal Mazarin, 
w r ho in his administration of 

1 

affairs followed in the foot¬ 
steps of his predecessor, Riche¬ 
lieu, carrying out with great 
ability the policy of that min¬ 
ister (sect. 637). Before his 
death the House of Austria in 
both its branches had been 
humiliated and crippled, and 
the House of Bourbon was 
ready to assume the lead in 
European affairs. 

652. Louis XIV becomes 
his Own Prime Minister. 
Mazarin died in 1661. Upon 
this event Louis, now twenty-three years of age, calling together 
the heads of the various departments of the government, said to’ 
them that in the future he should himself attend to affairs. He 
then charged the secretaries not to sign any paper, not even a 
passport, without his express commands. 

From this time on for more than half a century Louis was his 
own prime minister. He gave personal attention to every matter, 
even the most trivial. Probably no wearer of a crown, Philip II 
of Spain possibly excepted, ever worked harder at "the trade of 
a king,” as he himself designated his employment. He had able 



Fig. 121 . Louis XIV. (After a paint¬ 
ing by Philippe de Champagne ) 











§ 653] 


THE WARS OF LOUIS XIV 


455 


men about him, but they planned and worked—and sometimes 
chafed—under his minute directions and tireless superintendence. 

653 . The Wars of Louis XIV. During the period of his per¬ 
sonal administration of the government, Louis XIV was engaged 
in four great wars: (i) a war respecting the Spanish Netherlands; 
(2) a war with the Protestant Netherlands; (3) the War of the 
Palatinate, or of the League of Augsburg; and (4) the War of 
the Spanish Succession. All these wars were, on the part of the 
French monarch, wars of conquest and aggression, or wars pro¬ 
voked by his ambitious and encroaching policy. The most in¬ 
veterate enemy of Louis during all this period was the Dutch 
Republic, the representative and champion of liberty. 

654 . The War concerning the Spanish Netherlands (i 667 - 
1668 ). L T pon the death in 1665 of Philip IV of Spain, Louis 
laid claim, in the name of his wife, to portions of the Spanish 
Netherlands and led an army into the country. The Hollanders 
were naturally alarmed, fearing that Louis would also want to 
annex their country to his dominions. Accordingly they effected 
what was called the Triple Alliance with England and Sweden. 
Louis was now quickly checked in his career of conquest, and 
compelled to give up much of the territory he had seized. 

655 . The War with the Protestant Netherlands ( 1672 - 1678 ). 
The second war of the French king was against the United 
Netherlands. His attack upon this little state was prompted by 
a variety of motives. In the first place, the Hollanders’ interven¬ 
tion in the preceding war had stirred his resentment. Then these 
Dutchmen represented everything to which he was opposed,— 
self-government, Protestantism, and free thought. 

In this war Louis found himself confronted by the armies of 
half of Europe. For several years the struggle was waged on land 
and sea,— in the Netherlands, all along the Rhine, upon the Eng¬ 
lish Channel, in the Mediterranean, and on the coasts of the New 
World. By the terms of the peace which eventually ended the 
war, Louis gave up his conquests in Holland, but kept a large 
number of towns and fortresses in the Spanish Netherlands, be¬ 
sides the free county of Burgundy on his eastern frontier. Thus 


456 


FRANCE UNDER LOUIS XIV 


[§ 656 


Louis came out of this tremendous struggle with enhanced repu¬ 
tation and fresh acquisitions of territory. People now began to 
call him the " Grand Monarch.” 

656 . Louis seizes the City of Strasburg (i68i). Ten years 
of comparative peace now followed for western Europe. Among 
the many indefensible acts of Louis during this period there 
were two which deserve special notice, since, while marking the 
culmination of Louis’ power and illustrating his arrogant and 
unjust use of that power, they also mark the turning point in his 
fortunes. The first of these was the seizure of the free city of 
Strasburg and a score of other important places on the left bank of 
the Rhine, belonging to the Empire. Strasburg was of supreme 
military importance to Louis on account of her strong forti¬ 
fications, which rendered her mistress of the Rhine. 

657 . The Revocation of the Edict of Nantes ( 1685 ). The 
second act to which we refer was the revocation of the Edict 
of Nantes, the gracious decree by which Henry IV guaranteed 
religious freedom to the French Protestants (sect. 633). By this 
cruel measure all the Protestant churches were closed, and every 
Huguenot who refused to embrace the Catholic faith was out¬ 
lawed. The persecution which the Huguenots had been enduring, 
and which was now greatly increased in violence, is known as the 
Dragonnades, from the circumstance that dragoons were quar¬ 
tered upon the Protestant families, with full permission to annoy 
and persecute them in every way "short of violation and death,” 
to the end that the victims of these outrages might be constrained 
to recant, which multitudes did. 

Under the fierce persecutions of the Dragonnades probably as 
many as three hundred thousand of the most skillful and indus¬ 
trious of the subjects of Louis were driven out of the kingdom. 
The effects upon France of this exodus were most disastrous. 
Several of the most important and flourishing of the French in¬ 
dustries were ruined, while the manufacturing interests of other 
countries, particularly those of the Protestant Netherlands, Eng¬ 
land, and Brandenburg, were correspondingly benefited by the 
energy, skill, and capital which the exiles carried to them. Many 


§ 658] 


THE WAR OF THE PALATINATE 


457 


of the fugitive Huguenots sought refuge in America; and no other 
class of emigrants, save the Puritans of England, cast 

Such healthful leaven ’mid the elements 
That peopled the new world. 1 

658. The War of the Palatinate, or of the League of Augs- 
hurg ( 1688 - 1697 ). The indirect results of the revocation of the 
Edict of Nantes were quite as calamitous to France as were the 
direct results. The indignation that the measure awakened among 
the Protestant nations contributed to enable William III of the 
United Netherlands to organize a formidable confederacy against 
Louis, known as the League of Augsburg. 

Louis resolved to attack the confederates. Seeking a pretext for 
beginning hostilities, he laid claim to properties in the Palatinate, 
and hurried a large army into the country, which was quickly 
overrun. But being unable to hold the conquests he had made,. 
Louis ordered that the country be laid waste. Among the places 
reduced to ruins were the historic towns of Heidelberg, Spires, 
and Worms. Even fruit trees, vines, and crops were destroyed. 

Another and more formidable coalition, known as the Grand 
Alliance, was now formed against Louis. It embraced England,. 
Holland, Sweden, Spain, Savoy, the Emperor, and several of the 
German princes. For ten years Europe was a great battlefield. 
It was very much such a struggle as that waged a century later 
by the allied monarchies of Europe against Napoleon, when they 
fought for the independence of the continent. 

Both sides at length becoming weary of the contest and almost 
exhausted in resources, the struggle was closed by the Peace of 
Ryswick (1697). There was a mutual surrender of conquests- 
made during the war, and Louis had also to give up many of the 
places he had seized before the beginning of the conflict. 

659. War of the Spanish Succession ( 1701 - 1714 ). Barely 
three years had passed after the Peace of Ryswick before the 
great powers of Europe were involved in another war, known: 
as the War of the Spanish Succession. 

1 See Baird, History of the Huguenot Emigration to America. 


45 ^ 


FRANCE UNDER LOUIS XIV 


[§ 660 


The proximate circumstances out of which this war grew were 
these. In 1700 the king of Spain, Charles II, the last male 
descendant in Spain of the great Emperor Charles V, died, leaving 
his crown—Charles was childless—to Philip, Duke of Anjou, a 
grandson of Louis XIV. The duke, a mere lad of seventeen years, 
assumed the crown with the title of Philip V, and thus became the 
founder of the Bourbon dynasty in Spain. "There are no longer 
any Pyrenees,” is the way in which Louis is reported to have ex¬ 
pressed his exultation over this virtual union of France and Spain. 

The common danger in such a union led to the forming of a 
second Grand Alliance 1 against France, a main object of which 
was to eject Philip from the Spanish throne and to seat thereon 
an Austrian prince. For thirteen years all Europe was shaken 
with war. The struggle was ended by the treaties of Utrecht 
(1713) and Rastadt (1714). By the provisions of these treaties 
the Bourbon prince Philip was left upon the Spanish throne, but 
on the condition that there should never be a union of the French 
and Spanish crowns upon the same head. His dominions also 
were pared away on every side. Gibraltar and the island of 
Minorca were ceded to England; Milan, Naples, the island of 
Sardinia, and the Catholic Netherlands were given to Austria; 
and Sicily to the Duke of Savoy. Spain was thus shorn of nearly 
half her territories in Europe. 

France also suffered in her colonial possessions and claims, 
being forced to cede Nova Scotia (Acadia) to England and to 
admit her sovereignty over Newfoundland and the Hudson Bay 
Territory. 

660. Death of the King ( 1715 ). It was amidst troubles, per¬ 
plexities, and afflictions that Louis XIV’s long and eventful reign 
drew to a close. The heavy and constant taxes necessary to meet 
the expenses of his numerous wars and to maintain an extravagant 
court, and to furnish means for the erection of costly buildings, 
had bankrupted the country, and the cries of his wretched sub¬ 
jects, clamoring for bread, could not be shut out of the royal 

1 The alliance embraced at first England, the Protestant Netherlands, Austria, and 
other German states, and later was joined by Portugal and Savoy. 


§661] 


THE COURT OF LOUIS XIV 


459 


chamber. Death, too, had invaded the palace, striking down the 
Dauphin and also two grandsons of Louis, leaving as the nearest 
heir to the throne his great-grandson, a mere child. On the 
morning of September i, 1715, the Grand Monarch breathed his 
last, bequeathing to this boy of five years a kingdom burdened 
with debt and filled with misery and dangerous discontent. He 
seemed at the last moment to be sensible of the mistakes and 
faults of his reign, for his dying charge to the little prince who 
was to succeed him was as follows: " Do not follow the bad ex¬ 
ample which I have set you. I have undertaken war too lightly, 
and have continued it from vanity. Do not imitate me, but be a 
pacific prince, and let your chief occupation be to relieve your 
subjects.” 

The tidings of the king’s death, instead of being received by 
his subjects with tears, was received with an outburst of rejoicing. 
A satirist of the time declared that "the people had shed too many 
tears during his life to have any left for his death.” 

661. The Court of Louis XIV. The court of the Grand Mon¬ 
arch was the most extravagantly magnificent that Europe has 
ever seen. Never since Nero spread his Golden House over the 
burnt district of Rome and ensconcing himself amid its luxurious 
appointments exclaimed, "Now I am housed as a man ought to 
be,” had prince or king so ostentatiously lavished upon himself the 
wealth of an empire. Louis had half a dozen palaces, the most 
costly of which was that at Versailles. Here he created, in what 
was originally a desert, a beautiful miniature universe of which he 
was the center, the resplendent sun—he chose the sun as his 
emblem—around which all revolved and from which all received 
light and life. And here were gathered the beauty, wit, and 
learning of France. The royal household numbered over fifteen 
thousand persons, all living in luxurious idleness at the expense of 
the people. One element of this enormous family was the great 
lords of the old feudal aristocracy. Dispossessed of their ancient 
power and wealth, they were content now to fill a place in the 
royal household,— to be the king’s pensioners and the elegant 
embellishment of his court. 


460 


FRANCE UNDER LOUIS XIV 


[§ 662 


As can easily be imagined, the court life of this period was 
shamefully corrupt. Vice, however, was gilded. The most scanda¬ 
lous immoralities were made attractive by the glitter of superficial 
accomplishment and by exquisite suavity and polish of manner. 
But, notwithstanding its insincerity and immorality, the brilliancy 
of the Court of Louis dazzled all Europe. Other courts imitated 
its manners and emulated its extravagances. In all matters of 
taste and fashion France gave laws to the continent, and the 
French language became the court language of the civilized world. 

662 . Literature under Louis XIV. Although Louis himself 
was not a scholar, he gave liberal encouragement to men of letters, 
thereby making his reign the Augustan Age of French literature. 
In this patronage Louis was not unselfish. He befriended poets 
.and writers of every class, because thus he extended the reputation 
of his court. These writers, pensioners of his bounty, filled all 
Europe with praises of the great king, and thus made the most 
ample and grateful return to Louis for his favor and liberality. 

Almost every species of literature was cultivated by the French 
writers of this era, yet it was in the province of the drama 
that the most eminent names appeared. The three great names 
here are those of Corneille (1606-1684), Racine (1639-1699), 
.and Moliere 1 (1622-1673). 

1 Among other world-renowned' French writers, philosophers, prelates, and orators 
-who adorned the age of Louis XIV were Descartes (1596-1650), the father of modem 
philosophy; Pascal (1623-1662), the prodigy in mathematics and the author of the 
famous Provincial Letters-, La Bruy^re (1645-1696), unrivaled depicterof character and 
manners; Madame de Sevigne (1626-1696), the brilliant letter writer, whose corre¬ 
spondence forms today a prized portion of French literature and constitutes a treasury 
of information for the court historian ; Bossuet (1627-1704), the eloquent court preacher 
and champion of divine-right kingship; Fenelon (1651-1715), the distinguished prelate 
and author of The Adventures of Tcicmachns , a disguised satire on the reign of Louis 
XIV ; La Rochefoucauld (1613-16S0), writer of memoirs and of keenly cynical maxims ; 
La Fontaine (1621-1695), greatest of modern writers of fables; Perrault (1628-1703), 
the first to publish such nursery tales as « Cinderella” and " Bluebeard” (some believe 
that Perrault merely edited tales written down by a little boy to whom they were told) ; 
Galland (1646-1715)) the first to publish the Arabian Nights in a European language ; 
Boileau (1636-1711), satirist and critic. Among the striking literary phenomena of the 
period are the excessively lengthy romances, of whose writers Mademoiselle de Scudery 
(1607-1701) is most noted, and the high development of parlor conversation, Made¬ 
moiselle de Scudery’s parlor succeeding the still more famous parlor of the Marquise de 
Rambouillet (1588-1665). 


§ 663 ] DECLINE OF THE FRENCH MONARCHY 461 


663. Relation of the Reign of Louis XIV to the Revolution 
of 1789. "If it be asked,” says the historian Von Holst, "who 
did the most towards the destruction of the ancient regime, the 
correct answer is, beyond all question, Louis XIV, its greatest 
representative.” Louis discredited absolute monarchy by his 
shameful misuse of his unlimited power. His many wars and his 
extravagant expenditures on an idle and profligate court weighed 
France down with crushing and intolerable burdens. It was the 
vast mass of misery and suffering created by his acting on the 
monstrous doctrine that "the many are made for the use of one,” 
that did much to prepare the minds and hearts of the French 
people for the great Revolution. 

664. Decline of the French Monarchy under Louis XV 
( 1715 - 1774 ). The supremacy of the House of Bourbon passed 
away forever with Louis XIV. In passing from the reign of the 
Grand Monarch to that of his successor, we pass from the strong¬ 
est and outwardly most brilliant reign in French history to the 
weakest and most humiliating. Louis XV was a despot without 
possessing any of the possible virtues of a despot. During his 
reign France made a swift descent toward the abyss of the 
Revolution of 1789. She took part, indeed, but usually with 
injury to her military reputation, in all the wars of the period. 
The most important of these for France was the Seven Years’ War 
(1756-1763), known in America as the French and Indian War, 
which resulted in the loss to France of Canada in the New World 
and of her Indian empire in the Old. 

References. For a comprehensive view of this period there is nothing 
superior to The Age of Louis XIV 2 vols., and The Decline of the French Mon¬ 
archy, 2 vols., — translations by Mary L. Booth of the corresponding parts of 
Henri Martin’s Histoire de France. Wakeman, II. O., Europe, 1598-/7/5, 
chaps, vi, vii, and ix-xv. K ITCHIN, G. W., A History of France , vol. iii. H ASSALL, 
A., The French People , chaps, xii-xiv; and Louis XIV and the Zenith of the 
French Monarchy. PERKINS, J. B., France under Mazarin, vol. ii; France under 
the Regency', and France under Louis XV, 2 vols. W ILLIAMS, H. N., Madame 
de Pompadour. For the history of the French in America during the age of 
Louis XIV, the reader will have recourse to Parkman, F., Frontenaeand New 
France under Louis XL Vi 


CHAPTER LXII 

THE STUARTS AND THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION 

(1603-1689) 

I. THE FIRST TWO STUARTS 
Reign of James the First (1603-1625) 

665. James’ Idea of Kingship. With the end of the Tudor 
line (sect. 612), James VI of Scotland, son of Mary Stuart, came 
to the English throne as James I of England. The accession of 
the House of Stuart brought England and Scotland under the 
same sovereign, though each country still retained its own 
legislature. 

James, like the other Stuarts who followed him on the English 
throne, was a firm believer in the doctrine of the divine right of 
kings. He held that hereditary princes are the Lord’s anointed, 
and that their authority can in no way be questioned or limited 
by people, priest, or Parliament. These are his own words: "It 
is atheism and blasphemy to dispute what God can do: good 
Christians content themselves with his will revealed in his 
word; so it is presumption and high contempt in a subject to 
dispute what a king can do, or say that a king cannot do Ihis 
or that.” 

666 . Contest between James and the Commons; "the 
Sovereign King and the Sovfereign People.” But the Com¬ 
mons of the English Parliament, and probably the majority of 
the English people, differed with their Stuart kings in their 
views concerning the nature of government, and particularly 
concerning the nature of the English government. In this differ¬ 
ence of views lay hidden, as we shall learn, the germs of the Civil 
War and of all that grew out of it,— the Commonwealth, the 
Protectorate, and the Revolution of 1688. 

462 


§ 666] JAMES AND THE COMMONS 463 

An incident lights up vividly the situation. A committee from 
the Commons was about to wait upon the king. "Place twelve 
armchairs,” said James to his attendants; "I am going to receive 
twelve kings.” What the king said in bitter irony was the simple 
truth. James, when he met the committee from the Commons, 
met men who were as sure that they had a divine right to rule 
England as he was that he had a divine commission to that same 
end. As the historian Guizot tersely expresses it, " Both king and 
people thought as sovereigns.” Here were the conditions of an 
irrepressible conflict. 

The chief matters of dispute between the king and the Com¬ 
mons were the limits of the authority of the former in matters 
touching legislation and taxation, and the nature and extent of 
the privileges and jurisdiction of the latter. 

As to the limits of the royal power, James talked and acted as 
though his prerogatives were practically unbounded. He issued 
proclamations which in their scope were really laws, and then 
enforced these royal edicts by fines and imprisonment as though 
they were regular statutes of Parliament. Moreover, taking ad¬ 
vantage of some uncertainty in the law as regards the power of 
the king to collect customs at the ports of the realm, he laid new 
and unusual duties upon imports and exports. James’ judges were 
servile enough to sustain him in this course, some of them going 
so far as to say in effect that "the seaports are the king’s gates, 
which he may open and shut to whom he pleases.” 

As to the privileges of the Commons, that body insisted, among 
other things, upon their right to determine all cases of contested 
election of their members, and to debate freely all questions con¬ 
cerning the common weal, without being liable to prosecution or 
imprisonment for words spoken in the House. James denied that 
these privileges were matters of right pertaining to the Commons, 
and repeatedly intimated to them that it was only through his 
own gracious permission and the favor of his ancestors that they 
were allowed to exercise these liberties at all, and that if their 
conduct was not more circumspect and reverential he should take 
away their privileges entirely. 


THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION 


[§ 667 


464 


On one occasion, the Commons having ventured in debate upon 
certain matters of state which the king had forbidden them to 
meddle with, he, in reproving them, made a more express denial 
than ever of their rights and privileges, which caused them, in a 
burst of noble indignation, to spread upon their journal a brave 
protest, known as " The Great Protestation, 1 which declared that 
"the liberties, franchises, privileges, and jurisdictions of Parlia¬ 
ment are the ancient and undoubted birthright and inheritance of 
the subjects of England, and that the arduous and urgent affairs 
concerning the king, state, and defense of the realm and the 
Church of England ... are proper subjects and matter of 
council and debate in Parliament” (1621). 

When intelligence of this action was carried to the king, he 
angrily adjourned Parliament, sent for the journal of the House, 
and with his own hand struck out the obnoxious resolution. 
Then he dissolved Parliament, and even went so far as to imprison 
several of the members of the Commons. In these high-handed 
measures we get a glimpse of the Stuart theory of government, 
and see the way paved for the final break between king and 
people in the following reign. 

667. Colonies and Trade Settlements. The reign of James I 
is signalized by the commencement of that system of colonization 
which has resulted in the establishment of the English race in 
almost every quarter of the globe. In the year 1607 Jamestown, 
so named in honor of the king, was founded in Virginia. This 
was the first permanent English settlement within the limits of 
the United States. In 1620 some Separatists, or Pilgrims, who 
had found in Holland a temporary refuge from persecution, pushed 
across the Atlantic, and amidst heroic sufferings and unparalleled 
hardships established the first settlement in New England and laid 
the foundations of civil liberty in the New World. 

Besides planting these settlements in the New World, the Eng¬ 
lish during this same reign settled themselves in the ancient 
land of India. In 1613 the East India Company established their 
first "factory” (trading station) at Surat. This was the humble 
beginning of the great English empire in the East. 


§ 668] 


LITERATURE UNDER KING JAMES 


465 


In this connection must also be noticed the Plantation of Ulster 
in Ireland. The northern part of that island having been desolated 
by a stubborn rebellion, and extensive tracts of land having 
been forfeited to the English crown, this land was now given 
by royal grant to English and Scotch settlers. Some of the 
Celtic clans were removed bodily and assigned lands in other 
parts of the island. This movement' began in 1610. Its aim was 
to Protestantize and Anglicize the country. The end sought was 
in a good measure attained. In less than a century after the 
beginning of the colonization movement there were over a million 
Protestants of the Presbyterian sect settled in Ulster. But the in¬ 
justice and harshness of the treatment of the Irish natives awak¬ 
ened among them a spirit of bitter hostility to the newcomers, 
which, intensified by fresh wrongs, has embittered all the relations 
of Ireland and England up to our own day. 

668 . Literature. One of the most noteworthy literary labors 
of the reign under review was a new translation of the Bible, 
known as King James’ Version , published in 1611. This version is 
the one in general use in the Protestant Church at the present day. 

The most noted writers of James' reign were a bequest to it 
from the brilliant era of Elizabeth. 1 Sir Walter Raleigh, the 
petted courtier of Elizabeth, fell on evil days after her death. 
On the charge of taking part in a conspiracy against the crown, 
he was sent to the Tower, where he was kept a prisoner for 
thirteen years. From the tedium of his long confinement he found 
relief in the composition of a History of the World. He was at 
last beheaded (1618). 

The close of the life of the great philosopher Francis Bacon 
was scarcely less sad than that of Sir Walter Raleigh. He held 
the office of Lord Chancellor and, yielding to the temptations of 
the corrupt times upon which he had fallen, accepted fees from the 
suitors who brought cases before him. He was impeached and 
brought to the bar of the House of Lords, where he confessed his 

1 Shakespeare died about the middle of the reign (in 1616). Several of his com¬ 
panion dramatists, who like himself began their career under Elizabeth, also outlived 
the queen, and did most of their work during the reign of her successor. 


466 


THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION 


[§ 669 


fault, but asserted that the money he took never influenced his 
judgment. He appealed pathetically to his judges "to be merciful 
to a broken reed.” He was sentenced to pay a heavy fine and 
to imprisonment in the Tower. But the king in pity released him 
from all the penalty and even conferred a pension upon him. He 
lived only five years after his fall and disgrace, dying in 1626. 

Bacon must be given the first place among the philosophers of 
the English-speaking race. His system is known as the " Inductive 
Method of Philosophy.” It insists upon experiment and a care¬ 
ful observation of facts as the only true means of arriving at a 
knowledge of the laws of nature. 

Reign of Charles the First (1625-1649) 

669 . The Petition of Right (i628). Charles I came to the 
throne with all his father’s lofty notions about the divine right of 
kings. He made his own these words of Scripture : " Where the 
word of a king is, there is power: and who may say unto him, 
What doest thou?” 1 Consequently the old contest between king 
and Parliament was straightway renewed. The first two Parlia¬ 
ments of his reign Charles dissolved abruptly, because instead of 
voting supplies they persisted in investigating public grievances. 

After the dissolution of his second Parliament, Charles endeav¬ 
ored to raise by means of benevolences (sect. 587) and forced 
loans the money he needed to carry on the government. But all 
his expedients failed to meet his needs, and he was forced to fall 
back upon Parliament. The Houses met, and promised to grant 
him generous subsidies, provided he would approve a certain 
Petition of Right which they had drawn up. Next after Magna 
Carta, this document is the most important in the constitutional 
history of England. Four abuses were provided against: (1) the 
raising of money by loans, benevolences, taxes, etc., without the 
consent of Parliament; (2) imprisonment without cause shown; 
(3) the quartering of soldiers in private houses,— a very vexatious 
thing; and (4) trial by martial law, that is, without jury. 

1 Eccles. viii. 4 ; cited by Charles on his trial in 1649. 


§ 670] CHARLES RULES WITHOUT PARLIAMENT 467 

Charles was as reluctant to assent to the petition as King 
John had been to assent to Magna Carta, but he was at length 
forced to give sanction to it by the use of the usual formula, 
"Let it be law as desired” ( 1628 ). 

670. Charles rules without Par¬ 
liament (i629-i64o). It soon became 
evident that Charles was utterly 
insincere when he gave his assent 
to the Petition of Right. He im¬ 
mediately violated its provisions in 
attempting to raise money by for¬ 
bidden taxes and loans. For eleven 
years he ruled without Parliament, 
thus changing the government x of 
England from a government by king, 

Lords, and Commons to what was in 
effect an absolute and irresponsible 
monarchy, like that of France or of 
Spain. 

Prominent among Charles’ most 
active agents were his ministers, 

Thomas Wentworth, later Earl of 
Strafford, and William Laud, Bishop 
of London and later Archbishop of 
Canterbury, both of whom earned un¬ 
enviable reputations through their ^ ~ 

industry and success in building up a painting by Vandyke ) 
the absolute power of their master 

upon the ruins of the ancient institutions of English liberty. 

The high-handed proceedings of Charles and his agents were 
upheld by three iniquitous courts of usurped jurisdiction. These 
were known as the "Council of the North,” the "Star Chamber,” 
and the "High Commission Court.” All these courts sat without 
jury and, being composed of the creatures of the king, were of 
course his subservient instruments. Often their decisions were un¬ 
just and arbitrary, their punishments harsh and cruel. 












468 


THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION 


[§ 671 


671. John Hampden and Ship Money (1637-1638). Among 
the illegal taxes levied during this period of tyranny was a species 
known as "ship money,” so called from the fact that in early 
times the kings, when the realm was in danger, called upon the 
seaports and maritime counties to contribute ships and ship 
material for the public service. Charles and his agents, in look¬ 
ing this matter over, conceived the idea of extending this tax 
over the inland as well as the seaboard counties. 

Among those who refused to pay the tax was a country gentle¬ 
man named John Hampden. The case was tried in the Court of 
Exchequer, before all the twelve judges. All England watched the 
progress of the suit with the utmost solicitude. The question was 
argued by able counsel both on Hampden’s side and on the side of 
the crown. Judgment was finally rendered in favor of the king, al¬ 
though five of the twelve judges stood for Hampden. The case 
was lost; but the people, who had been following the arguments, 
were fully persuaded that it went against Hampden simply for the 
reason that the judges stood in fear of the royal displeasure should 
they dare to decide the case adversely to the crown. 

The arbitrary and despotic character which the government 
had now assumed in both civil and religious matters, and the 
hopelessness of relief or protection from the courts, caused thou¬ 
sands to seek in the New World that freedom and security which 
was denied them in their own land. 

672. The Bishops’ War (i639). England was ready to rise 
in open revolt against the unbearable tyranny. Events in Scot¬ 
land hastened the crisis. The king was attempting to impose the 
English liturgy (slightly modified) upon the Scotch Presbyterians. 
To the Scotch this seemed little short of a restoration of the 
"Popery'’ they had renounced. All classes, nobles and peasants 
alike, bound themselves by a solemn National Covenant—whence 
the term Covenanters —to resist to the very last every attempt 
to make innovations in their religion (1638). 

1 he king resolved to crush the movement by force. The 
Scotch accepted the challenge with all that ardor which religious 
enthusiasm never fails to inspire. Charles soon found that war 


§ 673] 


THE LONG PARLIAMENT 


469 


could not be carried on without money, and was constrained to 
summon Parliament in hopes of obtaining a vote of supplies. 
But instead of making the king a grant of money, the Commons 
first gave their attention to the matter of grievances, whereupon 
Charles dissolved the Parliament. The Scottish forces crossed 
the border, and the king, helpless, with an empty treasury and 
a seditious army, was forced again to summon the two Houses. 



Fig. 123. Execution of the Earl of Strafford. (From a 

contemporary print) 


673. The Long Parliament. Under this call met on Novem¬ 
ber 3 , 1640 , the Parliament which, from the circumstance of its 
sitting for twelve years and legally existing for nearly twenty, 
became known as the "Long Parliament.” A small majority of 
the members of the Commons of this Parliament were stern and 
determined men, men who fully realized the danger in which the 
constitutional rights and the traditional liberties of Englishmen 
were set, and who were resolved to put a check to the despotic 
course of the king. 


















































































470 


THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION 


[§ 674 


Almost the first act of the Commons was the impeachment of 
Strafford, as the most prominent instrument of the king’s tyranny 
and usurpation. He was finally condemned by a bill of attainder 1 
and sent to the block. 

To secure themselves against dissolution before their work was 
done, the Houses passed a bill which provided that they should 
not be adjourned or dissolved without their own consent. 

674. Charles’ Attempt to seize the Five Members. An im¬ 
prudent act on the part of Charles now precipitated the nation 
into the gulf of civil war, toward which events had been so 
rapidly drifting. With the design of overawing the Commons, the 
king made a charge of treason against five of the leading members, 
among whom were Hampden and John Pym, and sent officers to 
arrest them ; but the accused were not to be found. The next 
day Charles himself, accompanied by armed attendants, went to 
the House for the purpose of seizing the five members; but, 
having been forewarned of the king’s intention, they had with¬ 
drawn from the hall. The king was not long in realizing the state 
of affairs, and with the observation, "I see the birds have flown,” 
withdrew from the chamber. 

Charles had taken a fatal step. The nation could not forgive 
the insult offered to its representatives. All London rose in arms. 
The king, frightened by the storm which his rashness had raised, 
fled from the city to York. From the flight of Charles from London 
may be dated the beginning of the civil war (January io, 1642 ). 

The Civil War (1642-1649) 

675. The Two Parties. The country was now divided into 
two great parties. Those that enlisted under the king’s standard 
—on whose side rallied, for the most part, the nobility, the gen¬ 
try, and the clergy—were known as Royalists or Cavaliers; 
while those that gathered about the Parliamentary banner—the 

1 A bill of attainder is an act ordering the punishment of a certain person, passed like 
an ordinary statute of Parliament. Because of the misuse by the English Parliament of 
this power, the framers of the Constitution of the United States, in enumerating the 
powers of Congress, inserted this clause : " No bill of attainder . . . shall be passed.” 


§ 676] CROMWELL AND HIS "IRONSIDES” 


471 


townsmen and the yeomanry—were called Parliamentarians or 
Roundheads, the latter term being applied to them because many 
of their number cropped their hair close to the head, simply for 
the reason that the Cavaliers affected long and flowing locks. 
The Cavaliers favored the Established Episcopal Church, while the 
Roundheads were Puritans. During the progress of the struggle 
the Presbyterians and Independents (later known as Congrega- 
tionalists) became the leading factions in the Puritan party. 

676. Oliver Cromwell and his "Ironsides.” The war had 
continued about three years when there came into prominence 
among the officers of the Parliamentary forces a man of destiny, 
one of the great characters of history,—Oliver Cromwell. During 
the early campaigns of the war, as colonel of a troop of cavalry, he 
had exhibited his rare genius as an organizer and disciplinarian. 
His regiment became famous under the name of "Cromwell’s Iron¬ 
sides.” It was composed entirely of "men of religion.” Swearing, 
drinking, and the usual vices of the camp were unknown among 
them. They advanced to the charge with the singing of psalms. 
During all the war the regiment was never once beaten. 

677. The Battle of Naseby (i645). The decisive engage¬ 
ment of the war was what is known as the battle of Naseby. The 
Royalists were irretrievably beaten. Charles escaped from the 
field, and ultimately fled to the Scottish army, thinking that he 
might rely upon the loyalty of the Scots to the House of Stuart; 
but on his refusing to sign the Covenant and certain other articles, 
they gave him up to the English Parliament. 

678. "Pride’s Purge” (1648). Now there were many in the 
Parliament who were in favor of restoring the king to his throne 
on the basis of conditions which he himself had proposed, that is 
to say, without requiring from him any sufficient guaranties that 
he would in the future rule in accordance with the constitution 
and the laws of the land. The Independents, which means Crom¬ 
well and the army, saw in this possibility the loss of all the fruits 
of victory. A high-handed measure was resolved upon,—the 
exclusion from the House of Commons of all those members who 
favored the restoration of Charles. 




472 


THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION 


[§ 679 


Accordingly an officer by the name of Pride was stationed at 
the door of the hall to exclude or to arrest the members obnoxious 
to the army. One hundred and forty-three members were thus 
kept from their seats, and the Commons became reduced to about 
fifty representatives. This performance was appropriately called 
"Pride’s Purge.” "The minority had now become the majority.” 
But that is not an approved way of creating a majority. 

679. Trial and Execution of the King (January 30, 1649).. 
The Commons thus "purged” of the king’s friends now passed a 
resolution for the immediate trial of Charles for treason. A High 
Court of Justice, comprising one hundred and thirty-five members, 
was organized, before which Charles was summoned. Appearing 
before the court, he denied its authority to try him, consistently 
maintaining that no earthly tribunal could rightly question his 
acts. But the trial went on, and before the close of a week he was 
condemned to be executed "as a tyrant, traitor, murderer, and 
public enemy to the good people of this nation.” 

In a few days the sentence was carried out. Charles bore him¬ 
self in the presence of death with great composure and dignity. 
On the scaffold he spoke these words, the sincerity of which can¬ 
not be doubted: "For the people truly I desire their liberty and 
freedom as much as anybody whatsoever; but I must tell you that 
their liberty and freedom consists in having government; ... it 
is not in their having a share in the government; that is nothing 
pertaining to them.” 


II. THE COMMONWEALTH AND THE PROTECTORATE 

(1649-1660) 

680. Establishment of the Commonwealth. A few weeks 
after the execution of Charles the Commons voted to abolish the 
office of king as "unnecessary, burdensome, and dangerous to the 
liberty, safety, and public interest of the people,” and also to do 
away with the House of Lords as likewise "useless and dan¬ 
gerous to the people of England,” and to establish a free state 
under the name of "The Commonwealth.” A new Great Seal 


473 


§681] TROUBLES OF THE COMMONWEALTH 

r*L 

was made with this legend and date: "In the first year of free¬ 
dom, by God’s blessing restored, 1648.” 1 The executive power 
was lodged in a Council of State, composed of forty-one per¬ 
sons. Of this body the eminent patriot Sir Henry Vane was 
the leading member. 

681. Troubles of the Commonwealth. The republic thus born 
of mingled religious and political enthusiasm was beset with dan¬ 
gers from the very first. The execution of Charles had alarmed 
every sovereign in Europe. Russia, France, and the Dutch Re¬ 
public all refused to have any communication with the ambas¬ 
sadors of the Commonwealth. The Scots, who too late repented 
of having surrendered their sovereign into the hands of his 
enemies, now hastened to wipe out the stain of their disloyalty by 
proclaiming his son their king, with the title of Charles the 
Second. The Royalists in Ireland declared for the prince; while 
the Dutch began active preparations to assist him in regaining 
the throne of his unfortunate father. In England itself the 
Royalists were active and threatening. 

682. War with Ireland (1649-1652). The Commonwealth, 
like the ancient republic of Rome, seemed to gather strength 
and energy from the very multitude of surrounding dangers. 
Cromwell was made Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and sent into 
that country to crush the Royalist party there. With his " Iron¬ 
sides v he made quick and terrible work of the suppression of the 
Catholic Royalists. Having taken by storm the town of Drogheda, 
which had refused his summons to surrender, he massacred the 
entire garrison, consisting of three thousand men ( 1649 ). The 
capture of other towns was accompanied by massacres little less 
terrible. The following is his own account of the manner in which 
he dealt with the captured garrisons: "When they submitted, 
their officers were knocked on the head, and every tenth man of 
the soldiers killed, and the rest shipped for Barbadoes” (practi¬ 
cally sold into tropical slavery). Cromwell’s savage cruelty in his 
dealings with the Irish is an indelible stain on his memory. 

1 According to the method of reckoning then in vogue, the year 1648 did’not end 
until March 24. 


474 


THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION 


[§ 683 


The Catholic Royalists having been defeated, the best lands 
of the island were confiscated and granted to English and Scotch 
settlers. This method of securing Protestant ascendancy in the 
island is what English history designates as the " Cromwellian 
settlement,” but which Irish resentment calls the "Curse of 
Cromwell.” The religious ferocity of this Puritan settlement of 
Ireland fanned fiercely the flame of hatred which earlier wrongs 
had kindled in the hearts of the Irish people against their English 
conquerors,—a flame which has not yet burned itself out. 1 

683. War with Scotland (i65o-i65i). Cromwell was called 
out of Ireland by the Council to lead an army into Scotland. 
At Dunbar he met the Scottish army. Before the terrible onset of 
the fanatic Roundheads the Scots were scattered like chaff before 
the wind. Ten thousand were made prisoners, and all the camp 
train and artillery were captured. 

The following year, on the anniversary of the battle of Dunbar, 
Cromwell gained another great victory over the Scottish army at 
Worcester, and all Scotland was soon after forced to submit to the 
authority of the Commonwealth. 

684. Cromwell ejects the Long Parliament (i 653 ). The war 
in Scotland was followed by one with the Dutch. While this war 
was in progress Parliament came to an open quarrel with the 
army. Cromwell demanded of Parliament their dissolution and 
the calling of a new body. This they refused; whereupon, taking 
with him a body of soldiers, Cromwell went to the House, and 
after listening impatiently for a while to the debate, suddenly 
sprang to his feet and with bitter reproaches exclaimed: "I will 
put an end to your prating. Get you gone; give place to better 
men. You are no Parliament. The Lord has done with you.” At 
a prearranged signal his soldiers rushed in. The hall was cleared 
and the door locked. 

In such summary manner the Long Parliament, or the " Rump 
Parliament,” as it was called in derision after "Pride’s Purge,” 

1 Between the years 1641 and 1652 over half a million inhabitants of the island were 
destroyed or banished ; Prendergast (Cromwellian Settlement , p. 177) affirms that during 
these years and those immediately following five sixths of the population perished. 
" A man might travel,” he says, " for twenty or thirty miles and not see a living creature.” 


§ 685] 


THE PROTECTORATE 


475 


was dissolved, after having sat for twelve years. So completely 
had the body lost the confidence and respect of all parties that 
scarcely a murmur was heard against the illegal and arbitrary 
mode of its dissolution. 

685. The ^ Little Parliament ” and the Establishment of 
the Protectorate (1653). Cromwell now called together a new 
Parliament, or more properly a convention, summoning, so far as 
he might, only religious, God-fearing men. The " Little Parlia¬ 
ment,” as sometimes called, consisted of one hundred and fifty-six 
members, mainly religious zealots, who spent much of their time 
in Scripture exegesis, prayer, and exhortation. Among them was 
a London leather merchant, named Praise-God Barebone, who 
was especially given to these exercises. The name amused the 
people, and as the exhorter was a fair representative of a con¬ 
siderable section of the convention, they nicknamed it " Barebone's 
Parliament,” by which designation it has passed into history. 

The "Little Parliament” sat only five months, and then, resign¬ 
ing all its authority into the hands of Cromwell, dissolved itself. 
A sort of constitution, called the "Instrument of Government,” 
was now drawn up by a council of army officers and approved 
by Cromwell. This instrument, the first of written constitutions, 
provided for a Parliament consisting of a single House, a Council 
of State, and an executive or president serving for life and bearing 
the title of "Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, 
Scotland, and Ireland.” Under this instrument Cromwell became 
Lord Protector for life. 

686 . The Protectorate (1653-1659). Cromwell’s power was 
now almost unlimited. He was virtually a dictator, for he had 
the power of the army behind him. The Protector summoned, 
winnowed, and dissolved Parliament at pleasure. He could get 
together no body of men who could or would work smoothly with 
him. "The Lord judge between me and you,” were his words of 
dismissal to his last unmanageable and obstinate Parliament. 

For five years Cromwell carried on the government practically 
alone. His rule was arbitrary but enlightened. He gave England 
the strongest government she had had since the days of Wolsey 


476 THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION [§ 6S7 

and of Elizabeth. His aim was "to make England great and to 
make her worthy of greatness.” This worthiness he, zealous 
Puritan as he was, conceived could be acquired by England 
only as her affairs were conducted by godly men and in accord 

with the plain precepts of 
Scripture. 

Further, in Oliver’s mind, 
the English nation could be 
God’s own people and worthy 
of greatness only as England 
upheld the Protestant cause 
in Europe. It was this re¬ 
ligious persuasion which led 
him to become the protector 
of Protestantism wherever 
imperiled. He interposed 
successfully in behalf of ,the 
Huguenots in France and se¬ 
cured for them a respite from 
harassment; he obliged the 
duke of Savoy to cease his 
cruel persecution of the Vau- 
dois and caused the Pope to 
be informed that if the Prot¬ 
estants continued to be mo¬ 
lested anywhere—Cromwell 
laid the blame of everything 
done against Protestant in¬ 
terests at the door of the Papacy—the roar of English guns would 
speedily awaken the echoes of St. Angelo. 

687. Cromwell’s Death. Notwithstanding Cromwell was a 
man of immovable resolution and iron spirit, still he felt sorely 
the burdens of his government, and was deeply troubled by the 
anxieties of his position. In the midst of apparent success he was 
painfully conscious of utter failure. He had wished to establish a 
constitutional government. Instead, he found himself a military 



Fig. 124. Oliver Cromwell. (After 
a portrait by Samuel Cooper ) 

You have that in your countenance which I 
would fain call master.— Earl of Kent to King 
Lear in Shakespeare’s King Lear 





§ 688] 


THE RESTORATION 


477 


usurper, whose title was simply the title of the sword. His govern¬ 
ment, we may believe, was as hateful to himself as to the great 
mass of the English people. With his constitution undermined by 
overwork and anxiety, fever attacked him, and with gloomy appre¬ 
hensions as to the terrible dangers into which England might drift 
after his hand had fallen from the helm of affairs, he lay down to 
die, passing away on the day which he had always called his 
"fortunate day,”—the anniversary of his great victories of Dun¬ 
bar and Worcester (September 3 , 1658 ). 

688 . Richard Cromwell ( 1658 - 1659 ). With his dying breath 
Oliver Cromwell — so it was given out — had designated his son 
Richard as his successor in the office of the Protectorate. Richard 
was exactly the opposite of his father,— timid, irresolute, and 
irreligious. The control of affairs that had taxed to the utmost 
the genius and resources of the father was altogether too great 
an undertaking for the incapacity and inexperience of the son. 
No one was quicker to realize this than Richard himself, and after 
a rule of a few months, yielding to the pressure of the army, 
whose displeasure he had incurred, he resigned his office. 

689. The Restoration ( 1660 ). For some months after the fall 
of the Protectorate the country trembled on the verge of anarchy. 
The gloomy outlook into the future and the unsatisfactory experi¬ 
ment of the Commonwealth caused the great mass of the English 
people earnestly to desire the restoration of the monarchy,—in 
truth, the majority of the nation had never desired its abolition. 
Charles Stuart, toward whom the tide of returning loyalty was 
running, was now in Holland. General Monk, the commander 
of the army in Scotland and the representative of Scottish senti¬ 
ment, marched south to London and assumed virtual control 
of affairs. 

The Long Parliament, including the members ejected by Pride 
(sect. 678 ), now reassembled, and by resolution declared that 
"according to the ancient and fundamental laws of this kingdom 
the government is and ought to be by king, Lords, and Com¬ 
mons.” An invitation was sent to Prince Charles to return to his 
people and take his place upon the throne of his ancestors. 



478 


THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION 


[§ 690 


Amid the wildest demonstrations of joy Charles stepped ashore 
on the island from which he had been for nine years an exile. As 
he observed the extensive preparations made for his reception, and 
received from all parties the warmest congratulations, he remarked 
with pleasant satire, "Surely it is my own fault that I have re¬ 
mained these years in exile from a country which is so glad to 
see me.” 

690. Why the Puritan Revolution failed. The Puritan Revo¬ 
lution had failed. To assign the deeper causes of this failure, 
whether in circumstances or in the personal character of Cromwell 
or of other leaders of the movement, would be a difficult thing 
to do; but without much hesitation we may say that one of the 
obvious causes of the failure was that the Puritans committed 
the fault—which has been declared to be almost always the fault 
of revolutionists—of going too fast and too far. At the outset 
the Revolution had for its aim simply the setting of reason¬ 
able restrictions upon the exercise of the royal authority. Very 
soon, however, the kingly office, the hereditary Llouse of Lords, 
and the Episcopal Church had been abolished. Each of these 
extreme measures raised up many implacable enemies of the 
Revolution. 

Then again, Puritanism, in many things, had got far away from 
English good sense. The Puritan regulations respecting harmless 
amusements, the observance of the Sabbath, and a hundred other 
matters were extreme and absurd and well calculated to provoke 
the scoff of the godless. So while in some directions the Puri¬ 
tans were merely in advance of the mass of the English people, 
in others they had gone far aside from the path that England 
was treading or was ever going to tread. Hence Puritanism was 
bound to fail. 

Rut to leave the matter thus would be misleading. In a 
deeper sense Puritanism did not fail. "What of heroism, what of 

eternal light,” says Carlyle, "there be in a man and his life . . . 

remains forever a new divine portion of the sum of things.” And 
so was it with Puritanism. What of heroism and of truth there 
was in it—and there was much of both—was added to the sum 


§ 691] 


PURITAN LITERATURE 


479 


of English history. Much that is best and truest in the life of 
England today and of Greater England beyond the seas strikes 
its roots deep in the Puritanism of the seventeenth century. 

691. Puritan Literature; it lights up the Religious Side of 
the English Revolution. No epoch in history receives a fresher 
illustration from the study of its literature than that of the Puritan 
Revolution. To neglect this, and yet hope to gain a true concep¬ 
tion of that wonderful episode in the life of the English people 
by an examination of its outer events and incidents alone, would, 
as Green declares, be like trying to form an idea of the life and 
work of ancient Israel from Kings and Chronicles , without Psalms 
and the Prophets. The true character of the English Revolution, 
especially upon its religious side, must be sought in the magnifi¬ 
cent epic of Milton and the unequaled allegory of Bunyan. 

Both of these great works, it is true, were written after the 
Restoration, but they were both inspired by that spirit which had 
struck down despotism and set up the Commonwealth. The 
epic was the work of a lonely, disappointed republican; the alle¬ 
gory, of a captive Puritan. 

Milton ( 1608 - 1674 ) stands as the grandest representative of 
Puritanism. After the death of Charles I he wrote a famous work 
in Latin entitled The Defense of the English People, in which he 
justified the execution of the king. The Restoration forced him 
into retirement, and the last fourteen years of his life were passed 
apart from the world. It was during these years that, in loneli¬ 
ness and blindness, he composed the immortal poems Paradise Lost 
and Paradise Regained. The former is the "Epic of Puritanism.” 
All that was truest and grandest in the Puritan character found 
expression in the moral elevation and religious fervor of this the 
greatest of Christian epics, 

John Bunyan ( 1628 - 1088 ) was a Puritan nonconformist. 
After the Restoration he was imprisoned for twelve years in Bed¬ 
ford jail, on account of nonconformity to the established worship. 
It was during this dreary confinement that he wrote his Pilgrim's 
Progress , the most admirable allegory in English literature. The 
habit of the Puritan, from constant study of the Bible, to employ 


480 


THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION 


[§ 692 


in all forms of discourse its language and imagery, is best illus¬ 
trated in the pages of this remarkable work. Here, as nowhere 
else, we learn what realities to the Puritan were the Bible repre¬ 
sentations of sin, repentance, and atonement, of heaven and hell. 


III. THE RESTORED STUARTS 

692. Punishment of the Regicides. The monarchy having 
been restored in the person of Charles II ( 1660 - 1685 ), Parlia¬ 
ment extended a general pardon to all who had taken part in 
the late rebellion, except Sir Henry Vane and certain of the 
judges who had condemned Charles to the block. Thirteen of 
these were executed with revolting cruelty, their hearts and 
bowels being cut out of their living bodies. Others of the regi¬ 
cides were condemned to imprisonment for life. Vane was finally 
executed. Death had already removed the other great leaders 
of the rebellion,— Cromwell, Ireton, and Bradshaw,—beyond the 
reach of Royalist hate; so vengeance was taken upon their 
bodies. These were dragged from their tombs in Westminster 
Abbey, hauled to Tyburn, and there on the anniversary of 
Charles’ execution were hanged, and afterwards beheaded. 

693. Covenanters. Early in the reign the services of the 
Anglican Church were restored by Parliament, and harsh laws 
were enacted against all nonconformists. Thus the Conventicle 
Act made it a crime for five persons or more, "over and above 
those of the same household,” to gather in any house or in 
any place for worship, unless the service was conducted according 
to the forms of the Church of England. 

In Scotland the attempt to suppress conventicles and introduce 
Episcopacy was stoutly resisted by the Covenanters (sect. 672 ), 
who insisted on their right to worship God in their ow r n way. 
They were therefore subjected to persecutions most cruel and 
unrelenting. They were hunted by English troopers over their 
native moors and among the wild recesses of their mountains, 
whither they secretly retired for prayer and worship. The tales 
of the sufferings of the Scotch Covenanters at the hands of the 


§ 694] ACCESSION OF JAMES II 481 

English Protestants form a harrowing chapter of the records of 
the ages of religious persecution. 

694. The Plague and the Great Fire. Early in the summer 
of 1665 London was swept by a woeful plague, the most terrible 
visitation the city had known since the Black Death in the Middle 
Ages. In six months a hundred thousand of the population died. 

The next year a great fire destroyed over thirteen thousand 
houses, eighty-nine churches, and a multitude of public buildings. 
The disaster was a blessing in disguise. The burned districts were 
rebuilt in a more substantial way, with broader streets and more 
airy residences. London became a more beautiful and healthful 
city than would have been possible without the fire . 1 

695. Accession of James II (i685); his Despotic Course. 
Charles was followed by his brother James, whose rule was 
destined to be short and troubled. Like all the other Stuarts, 
James held exalted notions of the divine right of kings to rule 
as they please, and at once set about carrying out these ideas in a 
most reckless manner. Notwithstanding he had given solemn 
assurances that he would uphold the Anglican Church, he straight¬ 
way set about the reestablishment of the Catholic worship. He 
arbitrarily prorogued and dissolved Parliament. Like his brother 
Charles, he intrigued with Louis XIV against his own subjects. 
This despotic course of the king raised up enemies on all sides. 
No party or sect, save the most zealous Catholics, stood by him. 
The Tory gentry were in favor of royalty, but not of tyranny. 

696. The Revolution of 1688 and the Declaration of Rights. 
The crisis which it was easy to see was impending was hastened 
by the birth of a prince, as this cut off the hope of the nation 
that the crown upon James’ death would descend to his Protes¬ 
tant daughter Mary, now wife of William III, Prince of Orange, 
stadtholder of Holland. The most active of the king’s enemies 
therefore resolved to bring about at once what they had been 
inclined to wait to have accomplished by his death. They sent 

1 One of the churches destroyed was St. Paul’s Cathedral, which was rebuilt with 
great magnificence. Its designer was the eminent architect, Sir Christophei \\ ren, near 
whose tomb within the building is this inscription : Si monwnentwn requiris , circwnspice, : 
" If you seek his monument, look around.” 


482 


THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION 


[§ 697 


an invitation to the Prince to come over and take possession of the 
government. William accepted the invitation and straightway 
began to gather his fleet and army for the enterprise. 

The moment the ships of the Prince touched the shores of the 
island, the army and people went over to him in a body. The king 
was absolutely deserted. Flight alone was left him. The queen 
was secretly embarked for France, where the king scon after 
joined her. The last act of the king before leaving England was 
to disband the army and fling the Great Seal into the Thames. 

Almost the first act of the Prince was to issue a call for a con¬ 
vention to provide for the permanent settlement of the crown. 
This convention did not repeat the error of the Parliament that 
restored Charles II and give the crown to the Prince and Princess 
without proper guaranties for the conduct of the government 
according to the ancient laws of the kingdom. They drew up 
the celebrated Declaration of Rights, which plainly rehearsed all 
the old rights and liberties of Englishmen. William and Mary 
were required to accept this declaration, and to agree to rule in 
accordance with its provisions, whereupon they were declared King 
and Queen of England. In such manner was effected what is 
known in history as "the Glorious Revolution of 1688 .” 

697. The Social and Moral Life of the "Restoration.” The 
reigns of the restored Stuarts mark the most corrupt period in 
the life of English society. The low standard of morals and the 
general profligacy in manners, especially among the higher classes, 
are in part attributable to the demoralizing example of a shock¬ 
ingly licentious court, but in a larger measure, perhaps, should be 
viewed as the natural reaction from the severe, repellent Puri¬ 
tanism or the preceding period. The Puritans erred in their m- 
aiscnminate censure of all forms of harmless amusement and 
innocent pleasure. They closed all the theaters, forbade the May- 
pole dances of the people, condemned as paganish the observance 
of Christmas, and frowned upon color or adornment in dress as 
utterly incompatible with a proper sense of the seriousness of life. 

The revolt and reaction came, as come they must. Upon the 
"Restoration” society swung to the opposite extreme. Faith gave 


§ 698] THE BILL OF RIGHTS 483 

place to infidelity; sobriety to drunkenness; Bible study, psalm 
singing, and exhorting, to theatergoing, profanity, and carousing. 

The literature of the age is a perfect record of this revolt against 
the "sour severity” of Puritanism and a faithful reflection of the 
unblushing immorality of the times. So immoral and indecent are 
the works of the writers for the stage of this period that these 
authors have acquired the designation of " the corrupt dramatists.” 
Holding a prominent place among them was the poet Dryden. 

IV. REIGN OF WILLIAM AND MARY (1689-1702) 

698. The Bill of Rights (December 16, 1689). The Revo¬ 
lution of 1688 and the settlement of the crown upon William and 
Alary marks an epoch in the constitutional history of England. 
It settled forever the long dispute between king and Parliament,— 
and settled it in favor of the latter. The Bill of Rights, which 
was substantially the articles of the Declaration of Rights framed 
into a law, and which was one of the earliest acts of the first 
Parliament under William and Alary, in effect "transferred sov¬ 
ereignty from the king to the House of Commons.” 

By shutting out James from the throne and bringing in William, 
and by the exclusion of Catholic heirs from the succession, it 
plainly announced that the kings of England derive their right 
and title to rule not from the accident of birth but from the will 
of the people, and that Parliament may depose any king and, 
excluding from the throne his heirs, settle the crown anew in 
another family. This uprooted quite thoroughly the doctrine that 
princes have a divine and inalienable right to the throne of their 
ancestors and, when once seated on that throne, rule simply as the 
vicegerents of God, above all human censure and control. We 
shall hear constantly less and less in England of this theory of 
government which for so long a time overshadowed and threatened 
the freedom of the English people. 

The separate provisions of the bill, following closely the language 
of the Declaration, denied the dispensing power of the crown,— 
that is to say, the authority claimed by the Stuarts of annulling a 


484 


THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION 


[§ 699 


law by a royal edict; forbade the king to usurp the functions of 
the courts of justice, to levy taxes, or to keep an army in time of 
peace without the consent of Parliament; asserted the right of the 
people to petition for redress of grievances and freely to choose 
their representatives; reaffirmed, as. one of the ancient privileges 
of both Houses, perfect freedom of debate; and demanded that 
Parliament should be frequently assembled. 

Mindful of Charles’ attempt to reestablish the Catholic worship, 
the framers of this same Bill of Rights further declared that all per¬ 
sons holding communion with the Church of Rome or uniting in 
marriage with a Catholic should be " forever incapable to possess, 
inherit, or enjoy the crown and government of the realm.” Since 
the Revolution of 1688 no Catholic has worn the English crown. 

All these provisions now became inwrought into the English 
constitution and from this time forward were recognized as part 
of the fundamental law of the realm. 

699. James attempts to recover the Throne: Battle of the 
Boyne ( 1690 ). The first years of William’s reign were disturbed 
,by the efforts of James to regain the throne which he had aban¬ 
doned. In these attempts he was aided by Louis XIV, and by 
the Jacobites, 1 the name given to the adherents of the exile king. 
The Irish gave William the most trouble, but in the decisive 
battle of the Boyne he gained a great victory over them, and 
soon all Ireland acknowledged his authority. 2 

References. GARDINER, S. R., History of England (1603-1642), 10 vols.; 
History of the Great Civil War , 4 vols.; Histoiy of the Commonwealth and Pro¬ 
tectorate, 4 vols.; Oliver Cromwell and The First Two Stuarts and the Puritan 
Revolution. (Dr. Gardiner made this period especially his own. His works are 
of the highest authority and value.) Macaulay, T. B., The Histoiy of England 
from the Accession of fames II ; also his Essays on Milton and John Hampden. 
Morley, J., Oliver Cromwell. Harrison, F., Oliver Cromwell. Hale, E., The 
Fall of the Stuarts. Wakeman, H. O., The Church of the Puritans. Trevelyan, 
G. M., England under the Stuarts. 

1 From Jacobus, Latin for " James.” 

2 The war of the Palatinate (sect. 658), in which England took part, filled most of the 
years of William’s reign. William died in 1702 ; Mary had died before him, and as they 
left no children, the crown descended to the Princess Anne, Mary’s sister, the wife of 
Prince George of Denmark. 


CHAPTER LXIII 

THE RISE OF RUSSIA: PETER THE GREAT 

(1682-1796) 

700. General Remarks. We left Russia at the close of the 
Middle Ages a semi-savage, semi-Asiatic power, so hemmed in 
by barbarian bands and hostile races as to be almost entirely cut 
off from intercourse with the civilized world (sect. 521 ). In the 
present chapter we shall tell how her boundaries were pushed 
out to the Euxine and to the Baltic, and how she was initiated as . 
a member of the European family of nations. The main interest 
of our story will gather about Peter the Great, whose almost 
superhuman strength and energy it was that first lifted the great 
barbarian nation to a prominent place among the Western states. 

701. Accession of Peter the Great ( 1682 ). The royal line 
established in Russia by the old Norseman Ruric (sect. 409 ) 
ended in 1598. 1 Then followed a period of confusion and of 
foreign invasion, known as the Troublous Times, after which 
Michael Romanoff, the first of the celebrated family that bears 
his name, was chosen Tsar ( 1613 ). For more than half a century 
after the accession of the Romanoffs there is little either in the 
genius or in the deeds of any of the line calculated to draw our 
special attention. But toward the close of the seventeenth century 
there ascended the Russian throne "a man of miracles,”—a man 
wdiose genius and energy and achievements instantly drew the 
gaze of his contemporaries, and who has elicited the admiration 
and wonder of all succeeding generations. This was Peter I, known 
as Peter the Great, one of the remarkable characters of history. 
He was but seventeen years of age when he assumed the full 
responsibilities of government. 

1 The most noteworthy ruler of this line during the modern era was Ivan the Terrible 
(1533-1584). He drove out the Tatars (sect. 466) and extended and consolidated the 
Russian dominions. 


485 


486 


THE RISE OF RUSSIA 


[§ 702 


702. The Conquest of Azof (i696). At this time Russia pos¬ 
sessed only one seaport, Archangel, on the White Sea, the harbor 
of which for a large part of the year is sealed against vessels by the 
extreme cold of that high latitude. Russia, consequently, had no 
marine commerce; there was no word for fleet in the Russian 
language. Peter saw clearly that the most urgent need of his 
empire was outlets upon the sea. Hence his first aim was to 
wrest the Baltic shore from the grasp of Sweden, and the Euxine 
from the hands of the Turks. 

In 1695 Peter sailed down the Don and made an attack upon 
Azof, the key to the Black Sea, but was unsuccessful. The next 
year, however, repeating the attempt, he succeeded, and thus 
gained his first harbor on the south. 

703. Peter’s First Visit to the West 1 (1697-1698). With a 
view to advancing his naval projects Peter about this time sent 
a large number of young Russian nobles to Italy, Holland, and 
England to acquire in those countries a knowledge of naval affairs, 
forbidding them to return before they had become good sailors. 

Not satisfied with thus sending to foreign parts his young nobil¬ 
ity, Peter formed the somewhat startling resolution of going abroad 
himself and learning the art of shipbuilding by personal experience 
in the dockyards of Holland. Accordingly, leaving the govern¬ 
ment in the hands of three nobles, he set out for the Netherlands. 

Peter, with his uncouth barbarian suite, made a great sensation 
as he traveled westward. His passage with his court was like the 
passage of a horde of untamed Cossacks. Peter himself often acted 
like a savage and made his entertainers no end of trouble and 
anxiety. At Konigsberg he asked to see a man broken on the 
wheel. The authorities explained to him that they were unable 
to gratify his wish, since there was no criminal at hand condemned 
to undergo that form of punishment. Peter was astonished that 
that should stand in the way of his seeing how the instrument 
worked. "What a fuss about killing a man!” he said. 

The palaces in which Peter and his company were lodged were 
left in a condition that could hardly have been worse had they 

1 Peter made a second European tour in 1716-1717. 


§ 704] 


PETER’S REFORMS 


487 



been subjected to a regular siege. Prudent hosts removed every¬ 
thing breakable from the apartments designed for the accommo¬ 
dation of the "barbarian court.” 

Reaching the Netherlands Peter went to the docks of the East 
India Company at Amsterdam, where for four months he worked 
as a common laborer, 
being known among 
his fellow-workmen as 
Baas or Master Peter. 

Later he visited as a 
learner other countries. 

Intelligence of troubles 
at home finally re¬ 
called him in haste to 
Moscow. 

704. Peter’s Many 
Reforms. Once more 
at home, Peter was 
straightway busy with 
reforms. The variety 
of these was so great, 
and Peter’s manner of 
effecting them so harsh 
and strenuous, that, as 
one has aptly expressed 
it, he fairly "knouted 
the Russians into civi¬ 
lization.” 

As outgrowths of 
what he had seen or heard or had had suggested to him on 
his foreign tour, Peter issued a new coinage, introduced schools, 
built factories, constructed roads and canals, established a 
postal system, reformed the Russian calendar, and changed the 
government of the towns in such a way as to give the citizens 
some voice in the management of their local affairs, as he had 
observed was done in the Netherlands and in England. 


Fig. 125. Peter the Great. (After a 
painting by Karel de Mooi') 























488 


THE RISE OF RUSSIA 


[§ 705 


Most important in its political as well as religious consequences 
was Peter’s reform in the ecclesiastical system. At this time the 
Russian Church formed a sort of state within the state. The head 
of the Church, bearing the title of Patriarch, was a kind of Rus¬ 
sian pope. Through his censorship of the temporal authority and 
his interference in matters secular, he hampered and embarrassed 
the government. Peter put an end to this state of things. He 
abolished the patriarchate, and in its place created an adminis¬ 
trative body, appointed by himself and called the Holy Synod, to 
take charge of ecclesiastical affairs. Thus the last restraint upon 
the authority of the Tsar was destroyed. 

705. Charles XII of Sweden; the Swedish Monarchy at his 
Accession. Peter’s history now becomes intertwined with that of 
a man quite as remarkable as himself,— Charles XII of Sweden. 
Charles was but fifteen years of age when, in 1697 , the death of 
his father called him to the Swedish throne . 1 

Sweden was at this time one of the great powers of Europe. 
The basis of her greatness had been laid during the period of 
the Reformation. The traditions of the hero Gustavus Adolphus 
cast a halo about the Swedish throne. The ideal of this great 
sovereign had been the creation of a state embracing all the lands 
bordering upon the Baltic. In a certain measure this magnificent 
ideal had been realized. The Baltic was virtually a Swedish 
lake,— the Mediterranean of an empire which aspired to be the 
mistress of the North. 

But unfortunately Sweden could not maintain such a sea empire 
without hemming in and cramping in their normal development, 
territorial or commercial, various neighboring states,— in particu¬ 
lar, Russia, Poland, and Denmark. In this situation lay hidden 
the germ of the long and obstinate so-named Swedish Wars, which 
were essentially a struggle for the control of the Baltic. 

The accession to the throne of the young and inexperienced 
Charles offered to the jealous enemies and watchful rivals of 

1 The government of Sweden had now become an absolute autocracy. In 1693 
tne I-iiksdag, or Diet, had proclaimed the Swedish monarch to be an "all-commanding 
sovereign-king responsible for his actions to none on earth, but with authority as a 
Christian king to rule as it seemeth to him best.” 


§ 706] THE BATTLE OF NARVA 489 

Sweden seemingly too good an opportunity to be lost for pushing 
her back into the northern peninsula. Accordingly three sover¬ 
eigns, Frederick IV of Denmark, Augustus the Strong, Elector of 
Saxony and King of Poland, and Peter the Great of Russia, 
leagued against him for the purpose of appropriating such por¬ 
tions of his dominions as they severally coveted. 

706. The Battle of Narva ( 1700 ). But the conspirators had 
formed a wrong estimate of the young Swedish monarch. Not¬ 
withstanding the insane follies in which he was accustomed to 
indulge, he possessed talent; especially had he a remarkable 
aptitude for military affairs, though lacking many of the qualities 
of a great commander. 

With a well-trained force—a veteran army that had not yet 
forgotten the discipline of the hero Gustavus Adolphus—Charles 
now threw himself first upon the Danes, and in two weeks forced 
the Danish king to sue for peace; then he turned his little army 
of eight thousand men upon the Russian forces of twenty thou¬ 
sand, which were besieging the city of Narva, on the Gulf of 
Finland, and inflicted upon them a most ignominious defeat. 

707. The Founding of St. Petersburg ( 1703 ). After chastis¬ 
ing the Tsar at Narva, the Swedish king turned south and marched 
into Poland to punish Augustus for the part he had taken in the 
conspiracy against him. While Charles was busied in this quarter, 
Peter, having made good by strenuous exertions his loss in men 
and arms at Narva, was gradually making himself master of the 
Swedish lands on the Baltic, and upon a marshy island at the 
mouth of the Neva was laying the foundations of the city of 
St. Petersburg (now Petrograd), which he proposed to make the 
western gateway of his empire. 

The spot selected by Peter as the site of his new capital was 
low and subject to inundation, 1 so that the labor requisite to 
make it fit for building purposes was simply enormous. But 
difficulties never dismayed Peter. He gathered workmen from 
all parts of his dominions, cut down and dragged to the spot 

1 In selecting such a marshy site for his capital Peter may have been aiming to repro¬ 
duce Amsterdam, in which city he had spent so much of his time when abroad. 


490 


THE RISE OF RUSSIA 


[§ 708 


whole forests for piles and buildings, and caused a city to rise 
as if by magic from the morasses. The splendid metropolis stands 
today one of the most impressive monuments of the indomitable 
and despotic energy of Peter. 

708. Invasion of Russia by Charles XII; the Battle of 
Poltava ( 1709 ). Having defeated the armies of King Augustus 
and given his crown to another, Charles was now ready to turn 
his attention once more to the Tsar. With an army of barely 
forty thousand men he invaded Russia, and finally laid siege to the 
town of Poltava. Peter marched to its relief, and the two armies 
met in decisive combat in front of the place. The Swedish army 
was virtually annihilated. Escaping from the field with a few 
followers, Charles fled southward and found an asylum in Turkey . 1 

709. Russia’s Title to Baltic Lands confirmed; Peter’s Death. 
In 1721 the Swedish Wars were brought to an end by the Peace of 
Nystad, which confirmed Russia’s title to all the eastern Baltic 
lands that Peter had wrested from the Swedes. The undisputed 
possession of so large a strip of the Baltic seaboard vastly increased 
the importance and influence of Russia, which now assumed a 
place among the leading European powers. 

Peter’s eventful reign was now drawing to a close. Four years 
after the end of the Swedish Wars, being then in his fifty-fourth 
year, he died of a fever brought on by his excesses and careless 
exposures. Probably in the case of no other European nation has 
any single personality left so deep and abiding an impress upon 
the national life and history as Peter the Great left upon Russian 
society and Russian history. He planted throughout his vast em¬ 
pire the seeds of Western civilization, and by his giant strength 
lifted the great nation which destiny had placed in his hands out 
of Asiatic barbarism into the society of the European peoples. 

710. Reign of Catherine the Great (1762-1796); the Partition 
of Poland. From the death of Peter on to the close of the 
eighteenth century the Russian throne was held, the greater part 

\ 

1 After spending five years among the Turks, during which time he acted in a manner 
which abundantly justified his title of the " Madman of the North,” Charles returned to 
Sweden. Soon after his return he was killed in battle. 



50 0 

I i i i i ],. 


Scale of Miles. 

□ Territories taken ,-.Territories taken 

by Russia *-1 by Austria 

I 1 Territories taken by Prussia 













































§ 710 ] REIGN OF CATHERINE THE GREAT 


491 



of the time, by women, the most noted of whom was Catherine II, 
the Great, who was one of the most distinguished representatives 
of the so-called Enlightened Despots (sect. 649). But while a 
woman of great genius, she had most serious faults of character, 
being incredibly prof¬ 
ligate and unscrupu¬ 
lous. 

Carrying out ably 
the policy of Peter 
the Great, Catherine 
extended vastly the 
limits of Russian 
dominion and opened 
the country even more 
thoroughly than he 
had done to the en¬ 
trance of Western in¬ 
fluences. Aside from 
internal reforms, one 
of the most note¬ 
worthy matters of 
Catherine’s reign was 
her participation in 
the dismemberment 

of Poland, the partition of which state she planned in connection 
with Frederick the Great of Prussia and Maria Theresa of Austria. 
On the first division, which was made in 1772, the royal robbers 
each took a portion of the spoils. 1 


Fig. 126. Catherine II of Russia. (After a 
portrait by Rosse/in) 


1 The Polish constitution was a survival of the age of mediaeval feudal anarchy. In 
the struggle here between the royal power and the feudal nobility the aristocracy had 
triumphed and had reduced the kingly authority to the mere shadow of elective king- 
ship. One particular source of the anarchical state of things was a provision of the con¬ 
stitution which gave to every single member of the Diet the right and power to defeat 
any measure by his vote cast in opposition {liberum veto). Every noble was virtually a 
king. But it must be added that this anarchical state of the kingdom cannot be pleaded 
by the dismemberers of Poland in extenuation of their crime, for they in every possible 
way hampered all schemes of reform and fostered the anarchy because it served their 
interests and furthered the)* plans to do so. 




492 


THE RISE OF RUSSIA 


[§ 710 


It is difficult to apportion the blame among the participators in 
this transaction. Maria Theresa seems to have been the only 
one connected with the iniquitous business who had any scruples 
of conscience respecting the act. She justly characterized the 
proposed partition as downright robbery, for a long time stood 
out against it, and yielded at last and took her portion only when 
she realized that she was powerless to prevent the others from 
carrying out the policy of dismemberment. 

In 1793 a second partition was made, this time between 
Russia and Prussia; and then, in 1795, after the suppression 
of a determined revolt of the Poles under the lead of the patriot 
Kosciuszko, a third and final division among the three powers 
completed the dismemberment of the unhappy state and erased 
its name from the map of Europe. 

The territory gained by Russia in the dismemberment of Poland 
brought her western frontier close alongside the civilization of 
central Europe. In Catherine’s phrase Poland had become her 
"doormat,” upon which she stepped when visiting the West. 

By the close of Catherine’s reign Russia was beyond question 
one of the foremost powers of Europe and was henceforward to 
have a voice in all matters of general European concern. She was 
destined to play an important part in the Napoleonic wars and in 
the great struggle between the people and their despotic rulers,— 
a struggle already inaugurated on the Continent by the Revolu¬ 
tionists in France. 

References. Rambaud, A., History of Russia , 3 vols. Schuyler, E., Peter 
the Great , Emperor of Russia (the best biography of the great Tsar). For a 
shorter, delightfully written life, see Motley, J., Peter the Great. Morfill, 
W. R., Story of Russia , chaps, v-ix, and Stoiy of Poland , chap xi (the last for 
the Partition of Poland). Bain, R. N., Charles XII. 


CHAPTER LXIV 

THE RISE OF PRUSSIA: FREDERICK THE GREAT 

( 1740 - 1786 ) 

711 . The Beginnings of Prussia. The nucleus of the Prussian 
kingdom was a little state in the north of Germany known as 
the Mark or Electorate of Brandenburg. Early in the fifteenth 
century it had come under the rule of the Hohenzollerns, a family 
destined to play a great part in later European history. Soon 
after the opening of the seventeenth century the importance of 
the state was greatly increased by the union with it of the Duchy 
of Prussia, a strong military state, under Polish suzerainty, on 
the Baltic shore. 1 

712 . The Great Elector Frederick William (i640-i688). 
Just before the close of the Thirty Years’ War a strong man—* 
Frederick William, better known as the " Great Elector”—came 
to the throne of the dual state. At the Peace of Westphalia he 
secured new territory, which greatly enhanced his power and 
prominence among the German princes. 

The Great Elector ruled for nearly half a century and left to 
his successor a strongly centralized authority. He was one of the 
most ideal representatives of the principle of absolute monarchy 
then so dominant. Like all absolute rulers, he placed his faith 
in soldiers and laid the basis of the military power of Prussia 
by the creation of a standing army. 

713 . How the Elector of Brandenburg acquired the Title 
of King of Prussia. Elector Frederick III (1688-1713), son of 
the Great Elector, was ambitious for the title of King, a dignity 
that the weight and influence won for the Prussian state by his 
father fairly justified him in seeking. He saw about him other 

1 For the early history of this state see sect. 453. Since 1525 the duchy had been anu 
hereditary possession of a branch of the House of Hohenzollern. 

493 


494 THE RISE OF PRUSSIA L§ 7U 

princes less powerful than himself enjoying this dignity, and he 
too " would be a king and wear a crown.” 

It was necessary of course for Frederick to secure the consent 
of the Emperor, a matter of some difficulty, for the Catholic 
advisers of the Austrian court were bitterly opposed to having a 
Protestant prince thus honored and advanced. But the War of the 
Spanish Succession was just about to open, and the Emperor was 
extremely anxious to secure Frederick’s assistance in the coming 
struggle. Therefore, on condition of his furnishing him aid in the 
war, the Emperor consented to Frederick’s assuming the new title 
and dignity in the Duchy of Prussia , which, unlike Brandenburg, 
was not included in the Empire. Accordingly, early in the year 
1701, Frederick, amidst imposing ceremonies, was crowned and 
hailed as King at Konigsberg. Hitherto he had been Elector of 
Brandenburg and Duke of Prussia; now he was Elector of Bran¬ 
denburg and King of Prussia. 

Thus was a new king born among the kings of Europe. Thus 
did the House of Hapsburg invest with royal dignity the rival 
House of Hohenzollern. The event is a landmark in German, 
and even in European, history. The cue of German history from 
this on to the World War is the growth of the power of the Prussian 
kings and their steady advance to imperial honors and to the 
control of the affairs of the German race. 

714 . Frederick William I (1713-1740). The son and suc¬ 
cessor of the first Prussian king, known as Frederick William I, 
was a most extraordinary character. He was a strong, violent, 
brutal man, full of the strangest freaks. He had a mania for big 
soldiers. With infinite expense and trouble he gathered a regi¬ 
ment of the tallest men he could find, who were known as the 
"Potsdam Giants.” Not only were the Goliaths of his own 
dominions impressed into the service, but tall men in all parts of 
Europe were coaxed and hired to join the regiment. No present 
was so acceptable to Frederick William as a tall grenadier. The 
Princess Wilhelmina, referring to her father’s ruling passion, says: 
''The regiment might justly be styled 'the channel of royal favor,’ 
for to give or to procure tall men for the king was sufficient to 


495 


§ 715] ACCESSION OF FREDERICK THE GREAT 

obtain anything of him.” On the other hand, nothing angered 
him more than any interference with his recruiting service. To the 
Dutch, who had hanged two of his recruiting sergeants and then 
later wanted from Prussia a famous scholar for one of their uni¬ 
versities, he is said to have replied curtly, "No tall fellows, no 
professor.” 

Considering the trouble and expense Frederick William had in 
collecting his giants, the care which he took of them was quite 
natural. He looked after them as tenderly as though they were 
infants, and was very careful never to expose them to the dangers 
of a battle. 

Rough, brutal tyrant though he was, Frederick William was an 
able ruler. He did much to consolidate the power of Prussia, 
and at his death left to his successor a considerably extended 
dominion and. a splendidly drilled army of eighty thousand men. 
He was, as Carlyle calls him, the first great drillmaster of the 
Prussian nation. 

715. Accession of Frederick the Great (mo) ; his Youth. 
Frederick William was followed by his son Frederick II, known 
in history as Frederick the Great. Around his name gather events 
of world-wide interest for forty-six years just preceding the 
French Revolution. 

It was a rough nurture Frederick had received in the home of 
his brutal father. His sister Wilhelmina tells incredible tales of her 
own and her brother’s treatment at the hands of their savage parent. 
He made the palace a veritable hell for them both. He threw 
plates from the table at their heads and kept them in constant fear 
for their lives. Frederick’s fine tastes for music and art and read¬ 
ing exposed him in particular, to use the words of Wilhelmina, to 
his royal father’s "customary endearments with his fist and cane.” 

Frederick had a genius for war, and his father had prepared to 
his hand one of the most efficient instruments of that art since 
the time of the Roman legions. The two great wars in which 
Frederick was engaged, and which raised Prussia to the first 
rank among the military powers of Europe, were the War of 
the Austrian Succession and the Seven Years’ War. 


THE RISE OF PRUSSIA 


[§ 716 


496 

716 . War of the Austrian Succession (1740--1748). The very 
year that Frederick II ascended the Prussian throne the last 
of the direct male line of the Hapsburgs, the Emperor Charles VI, 
died. Now not long before his death Charles had bound all 
the leading powers of Europe to a sort of agreement called the 
Pragmatic Sanction, by the terms of which, in case he should 
leave no son, all his hereditary dominions should descend to his 
elder daughter, Maria Theresa. But no sooner was Charles dead 
than a number of princes each laid claim to all or to portions of 
the Hapsburg inheritance. Before any of these claimants, how¬ 
ever, had begun hostilities, Frederick,—whose father had guaran¬ 
teed the Pragmatic Sanction,—without any declaration of war, 
marched his army into Silesia and took forcible possession of that 
country. Frederick’s act was an act of pure brigandage. He 
himself frankly tells posterity that the motives under which he 
acted were a desire to augment his dominions, to render himself 
and Prussia respected in Europe, and to "acquire fame.” 

Almost all Europe was soon in arms. England, the Protestant 
Netherlands, and eventually Russia were drawn into the war as 
allies of Maria Theresa. The theater of the struggle came to 
embrace India and the French and English colonies in the New 
World. Macaulay’s well-known words picture the world-wide 
range of the conflagration which Frederick’s act had kindled : 
"In order that he might rob a neighbor,” he says, "whom he 
had promised to defend, black men fought on the coast of Coro¬ 
mandel, and red men scalped each other by the Great Lakes of 
North America.” 

The war went on until 1748, when it was closed by the Peace 
of Aix-la-Chapelle. Carlyle’s summing up of the provisions of 
the various treaties of this peace can be easily remembered, and 
is not misleading as to the essentials: "To Frederick, Silesia; as 
to the rest, wholly as they were.” 

717 . The Seven Years’ War (1756-1763). During the eight 
years of peace which now followed, Maria Theresa was busy form¬ 
ing a league of the chief European powers against the unscrupu¬ 
lous despoiler of her dominions. Russia, Sweden, many of the 


§717] 


THE SEVEN YEARS’ WAR 


497 


states of the Germanic body, and France all ultimately entered 
into an alliance with the queen. Frederick could at first find no 
ally save England,— toward the close of the war Russia came 
for a short time to his side,— so that he was left almost alone to 
fight the armies of half the Continent. 1 

The long war is known in European history as the Seven Years’ 
War. At the very outset it became mixed with what in American 
history is called the French and Indian War. For a time fortune 
was on Frederick’s side. In the celebrated battles of Rossbach, 
Leuthen, and Zorndorf he defeated successively the French, the 
Austrians, and the Russians, and startled all Europe into an ac¬ 
knowledgment of the fact that the armies of Prussia had at their 
head one of the greatest commanders of history. 

But fortune finally deserted Frederick. In sustaining the un¬ 
equal contest his dominions became drained of men, and ruin 
seemed to impend over his throne and kingdom. But just at this 
time a change in the government of Russia put a new face upon 
affairs. In 1762 Empress Elizabeth of that country died, and 
Peter III, an ardent admirer of Frederick, came to the throne, 
and immediately transferred the armies of Russia from the side 
of the allies to that of Prussia. The alliance lasted only a few 
months, Peter being deposed and murdered by his wife, who now 
came to the throne as Catherine II. She adopted a neutral policy 
and recalled her armies; but the temporary alliance had given 
Frederick a decisive advantage, and the year following Russia’s 
withdrawal, England and France were glad to give over the 
struggle and sign the Peace of Paris (1763). Shortly after this 
another peace (the Treaty of Hubertsburg) was arranged between 
Austria and Prussia, and one of the most terrible wars that had 
ever distressed Europe was over. Silesia was left in the hands 
of Frederick. 

The Seven Years’ War was one of the decisive combats of his¬ 
tory. Besides the Anglo-French question in India (sect. 726), it 
settled two other questions of vast reach and significance. First, 

1 The population of Prussia at this time was about 5,000,000; the aggregate popula¬ 
tion of the states leagued against her is estimated at 100,000,000. 


THE RISE OF PRUSSIA 


[§ 71 S 


498 

it settled, or at least put in the way of final settlement, the Austro- 
Prussian question,— the question as to whether Austria or Prussia 
should be leader in Germany. It made Prussia the equal of Aus¬ 
tria and foreshadowed her ascendancy. Second, it settled the 
Anglo-French question in America, a question like the Austro- 
Prussian question in Europe. It decided that North America 
should belong to the Anglo-Saxon and not to the Latin race. 

718 . Frederick rounds out his Dominions at the Expense of 
Poland. It was about a decade after the close of the Seven 
Years’ War that Frederick, as has already been related, joined 
with Catherine II of Russia and Maria Theresa of Austria in the 
First Partition of Poland (sect. 710). 

Respecting the value to Prussia of the territory she received 
in this transaction, Frederick in his History of my Own Times 
comments as follows: "This was one of the most important 
acquisitions we could possibly make, because it joined Pomerania 
and Eastern Prussia (see map, p. 500), and by rendering us mas¬ 
ters of the Vistula, we gained the double advantage of being able 
to defend this kingdom and of levying very considerable tolls on 
the Vistula, the whole trade of Poland being carried on upon that 
river.” But this aggrandizement of Prussia was secured only by 
just such a cynical disregard of international honesty by Frederick 
as marked his annexation of Silesia. 

719 , Frederick’s Political Philosophy and Statecraft. As 
the foregoing sections have disclosed, in all matters concerning 
foreign states, expediency was Frederick’s only guide; he did 
whatever he thought would aggrandize Prussia and glorify himself, 
without any regard to truth, honesty, and honor. The following 
are some of his avowed principles: "If there is anything to be 
gained by it, we will be honest; if deception is necessary, let us 
be cheats.” "The permanent principle for princes is to aggrandize 
their dominions as far as their power permits them to do so.” 
"Is it better that a people should perish, or that a prince should 
break his treaty? Where would one find the imbecile who would 
hesitate in answering this question?” 1 

1 Note King Albert’s answer to this question, sect. 932. 


§ 720 ] FREDERICK AS ENLIGHTENED DESPOT 499 

It was this immoral political philosophy and statecraft, so 
cynically acknowledged and acted upon by Frederick the Great, 
which, inherited and practiced by a later Hohenzollern (Emperor 
William II), was the fundamental cause of the great world, 
tragedy of 1914. 

720 . Frederick as an Enlightened Despot. Frederick in all 
his relations to his own subjects had a wholly different moral 
standard from that which he adopted in his dealings with his 
brother sovereigns. So reasonable was his conception of his 
kingly office, and such the use he made of it, that he has been 
assigned a place among the Enlightened Despots of the eighteenth 
century. 

During the intervals of peace between his great wars, and for the 
half of his reign which followed the Peace of Hubertsburg, Fred¬ 
erick labored to develop the resources of his dominions and to 
promote the material welfare of his people. He dug canals, con¬ 
structed roads, drained marshes, encouraged agriculture and manu¬ 
factures, and improved in every possible way the administration 
of the government. 

But Frederick’s attention was not wholly engrossed with look¬ 
ing after the material well-being of his subjects. He was a philoso¬ 
pher and believed himself to be a poet, and usually spent several 
hours each day in philosophical and literary pursuits. It has been 
said of him that "he divided with Voltaire the intellectual mon¬ 
archy of the eighteenth century.” He gathered about him a 
company selected from among the most distinguished authors, sci¬ 
entists, and philosophers of the age, among whom was his "co¬ 
sovereign” Voltaire, whom Frederick coaxed to Berlin to add 
brilliancy to his court and to criticize and correct his verses. 
Frederick felt very proud—for a time—of this acquisition, and 
rejoiced that to his other titles he could now add that of "the 
Possessor of Voltaire.” But it was an ill-assorted friendship ; 
the two "sovereigns” soon quarreled, and Voltaire was dismissed 
from court in disgrace. 

Frederick was a freethinker. His paganism made him indiffer¬ 
ent toward all religions, and hence tolerant. He said in effect, as 


500 


THE RISE OF PRUSSIA 


[§ 720 


• Carlyle reports him, "In this country every man must get to 
heaven in his own way.” The company which he gathered at 
Sans Souci, his favorite palace at Potsdam, near Berlin, was a 
most extraordinary collection of heretics, agnostics, misbelievers, 
and unbelievers. It was a company very representative of that 
learned literary and philosophical society of the eighteenth cen¬ 
tury whose ideas and teachings did so much to prepare the way 
for the French Revolution. 

It was on the very eve of this great political and social upheaval 
that Frederick died,— in 1786. Carlyle calls him "the last of 
the kings.” He was of course not the last in name, but he was 
the last to receive the title of " Great.” Only three years after he 
had been laid in the tomb the revolution broke out which closed 
the Age of the Kings and ushered in the Age of the People. 

References. Tuttle, H., History of Prussia , 4 vols. (This work was unhap¬ 
pily interrupted at the year 1757 by the death of the author.) Marriott, J. A. R., 
and Robertson, C. G., The Evolution of Prussia , chaps, i-iv. Reddaway, 
W. F., Frederick the Great and the Rise of Prussia. Carlyle, T., History of 
Friedrich the Secojid, 5 vols. (This is one of Carlyle’s masterpieces. Like his 
French Revolution , it will be best appreciated if read after some acquaintance 
with its subject has been gained from other sources. It deals almost exclusively 
with Frederick’s twenty-three years of war and utterly neglects or minimizes 
the twenty-three of his reign which were years of peace.) Longman, F. W., 
Frederick the Great and the Seven Years' War. Bright, J. F., Maria Theresa . 
Macaulay, T. B., Essay on Frederick the Great. 



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CHAPTER LXV 

ENGLAND IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 

721 . The Formula for Eighteenth-Century British History. 

"The expansion of England in the New World and in Asia,” says 

Professor Seeley, "is the formula which sums up for England the 
« 

history of the eighteenth century.” This expansion movement was 
simply the continuation of a maritime trade-development which 
had begun in the sixteenth century, and which had shaped large 
sections of the history of England by bringing her into sharp 
rivalry first with Spain and then with the Dutch Netherlands. 
Before the close of the seventeenth century England had practi¬ 
cally triumphed over both these commercial rivals. Her great and 
dangerous rival in the eighteenth century was France. "The 
whole period,” says Seeley, referring to the period between 1688 
and 1815, "stands out as an age of gigantic rivalry between 
England and France, a kind of second Hundred Years’ War.” 

To indicate from the viewpoint of English history the chief 
episodes in this great struggle between the two rivals for suprem¬ 
acy in the commercial and colonial world will be our chief aim 
in the present chapter. We shall, however, to render more com¬ 
plete our sketch of this century of English history, touch upon 
some other matters of special interest, though connected in no 
direct manner with the dominant movement of the period. 

722 . War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714). Respect¬ 
ing the causes and results of this war we have already spoken in 
connection with the reign of Louis XIV (sect. 659). Of what was 
there said we need here recall only the enumeration of the 
territorial gains which the war brought to England; namely, 
Gibraltar and the island of Minorca in the Old World, and Nova 
Scotia together with a clear title to Newfoundland and the Hud¬ 
son Bay Territory, in the New. 

Soi 



502 ENGLAND IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY [§ 723 

Of special interest in the present connection is that clause of 
the treaty between England and Spain whereby England took 
away from the French and secured for English merchants the 
contract known as the "Assiento,” which gave English subjects 
the sole right for thirty years of shipping annually forty-eight 
hundred African slaves to the Spanish colonies in America. This 
slave trade was as lucrative a traffic as the old spice trade, and 
at this time was some such object of rivalry among the commercial 
states of Europe as that had formerly been. 

Thus, as results of the first war of the eighteenth century Eng¬ 
land had got practical control of the Mediterranean, had secured 
a monopoly of the lucrative slave trade with the Spanish colonies, 
had made a beginning of wresting from France her possessions in 
the New World, and had gained mastery of the seas. “ Before 
the war,” says Mahan, "England was one of the sea powers; 
after it she was the sea power, without any second.” 

723 . Parliamentary Union of England and Scotland (1707). 
The most noteworthy matter in the domestic history of England 
in the early years of the eighteenth century was the union of the 
Parliaments of England and Scotland. 1 At this time England, 
dealing with Scotland as though it were a foreign state, shut out 
the Scotch traders not only from the English colonies but also 
from the English home market. The feeling in Scotland against 
England became intense, and there were threats of breaking the 
dynastic ties which united the two countries. The English govern¬ 
ment, realizing the danger which lurked in the situation, at last met 
the Scots in a spirit of reasonable compromise. It was agreed that 
the Parliaments of the two countries should be united, that perfect 
free trade should be established between them, and that all the 
English colonies should be open to Scotch traders. On this basis 
was brought about the union of the two realms into a single king¬ 
dom under the name of Great Britain (1707). From this time 
forward the two countries were represented by one Parliament 
sitting at Westminster. 

1 It was only the crowns of the two kingdoms which were united upon the accession 
of the House of Stuart to the English throne in 1603. 


§ 724 ] THE PRIME MINISTER AND THE CABINET 503 

724 . The Sovereign’s Loss of Political Influence; the Prime 
Minister and the Cabinet. The first Hanoverian king, 1 George I 
(1714-1727), was utterly ignorant of the language and the affairs 
of the people over whom he had been called to rule. On this 
account he was obliged to intrust to his ministers the practical 
administration of the government. The same was true in the 
case of George II. George III, having been born and educated 
in England, regained some of the old influence of former kings. 
But he was the last British sovereign who had any large personal 
influence in shaping governmental policies. 

The power and patronage lost by the crown passed into the 
hands of the chief minister, popularly called the Prime Minister, 
or Premier, whose tenure of office was dependent not upon the 
good will of the sovereign but upon the support of the House of 
Commons. This transfer of power was not made all at once, but 
by the middle of the eighteenth century it was practically com¬ 
pleted, although this fact was not always gracefully and promptly 
recognized by the crown. In the British government of today 
the Prime Minister is the actual and fully acknowledged execu¬ 
tive. The king remains the titular sovereign, indeed, but all the 
proper duties of the office are devolved upon the Premier, and all 
real power and patronage are in his hands. 

It was during the administration of Sir Robert Walpole, the 
first British Prime Minister in the modern sense, that what is 
known as the Cabinet assumed substantially the form which it has 
at the present time. This body is practically a committee composed 
of members of Parliament, headed by the Prime Minister, and de¬ 
pendent for its existence upon the will of the House of Commons. 
The Premier and his colleagues stand and fall together. When 
the Cabinet can no longer command a majority in the Commons, 
its members resign, and a new Prime Minister, appointed nomi¬ 
nally by the sovereign, but really by the party in control of the 
House of Commons, forms a new Cabinet. 

1 The sovereigns of the House of Hanover are George I (1714-1727), George II 
(1727—1760), George III (1760—1820), George IV (1820-1830), \\ illiam IV (1830—1837), 
Victoria (1837-1901), Edward VII (1901-1910), and George V (1910- ). 


504 ENGLAND IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY [§ 725 

725. The Religious Revival; the Rise of Methodism. It 

will be well for us here to turn aside from the political affairs of 
England and cast a glance upon the religious life of the time. 

In its spiritual and moral life the England of the earlier Han¬ 
overians was the England of the restored Stuarts. Among the 

higher classes there was 
widespread infidelity; re¬ 
ligion was a matter of jest 
and open scoff. The lower 
classes were stolid, callous, 
and brutal. Drunkenness 
was almost universal among 
high and low. The nation 
was immersed in material 
pursuits and was without 
thought or care for things 
ideal and spiritual. 

Such a state of things 
in society as this has never 
failed to awaken in select 
souls a vehement protest. 
And it was so now. At Ox¬ 
ford, about the year 1730, 
a number of earnest young 
men, among whom we find 
John and Charles Wesley 
and George Whitefield, formed a little society, the object of which 
was mutual helpfulness in true Christian living. From their strict 
and methodical manner of life they were derisively nicknamed 
Methodists. 

This Oxford movement was the starting point of a remarkable 
religious revival. John Wesley was the organizer, Whitefield the 
orator, and Charles Wesley the poet of the movement. 1 They and 
their helpeis reached the neglected masses through open-air meet- 

1 Charles Wesley wrote over six thousand hymns, many of which are still favorites 
in the hymnals of today. 



Fig. 127. John Wesley. (After a 
painting by G. Romney ) 




726] 


THE SEVEN YEARS’ WAR 


505 


ings. They preached in the fields, at the street corners, beneath 
the trees, at the great mines. The effects of their fervid exhorta¬ 
tions were often as startling as were those of the appeals of the 
preachers of the Crusades. 

The leaders of the revival at first had no thought of estab¬ 
lishing a church distinct from the Anglican, but simply aimed 
at forming within the Established Church a society of earnest, 
devout workers. Their enthusiasm and their often extravagant 
manners, however, offended the staid, cold conservatism of the 
regular clergy, and they were finally constrained by petty perse¬ 
cution to go out from the established organization and form a 
church of their own. 

The revival, like the Puritan movement of the seventeenth cen¬ 
tury, left a deep impress upon the life of England. It is due 
largely to this movement that in true religious feeling, in social 
purity, in moral earnestness, in humanitarian endeavor the 
England of today is separated by such a gulf from the England 
of the first two Georges. 

726 . The Seven Years’ War (175G-1763). Just after the middle 
of the century there broke out between the French and the Brit¬ 
ish colonists in America the so-called French and Indian War. 
This struggle became blended with what in Europe is known as 
the Seven Years’ War (sect. 717). At first the war went disas¬ 
trously against the British. The gloom was at its deepest when 
the elder William Pitt (later Earl of Chatham), known as "the 
Great Commoner,” came to the head of affairs in England. Pitt 
was one of the greatest men the English race has ever produced. 
Frederick the Great expressed his estimate of him in these words: 
"England has at last brought forth a man.” 

The war against France was now pushed not only in America 
and upon the sea but also in India and in Europe with renewed 
energy. The turning point of the struggle, so far as America 
was concerned, was the great victory gained by the British under 
the youthful Major General Wolfe over the French under Mont¬ 
calm on the heights of Quebec (1759). The victory gave Eng¬ 
land Quebec, the key to the situation in the New World. 


506 ENGLAND IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY [§ 727 


In India also fortune was declaring for the British in their 
struggle there with the French and their native allies. The mem¬ 
orable victory gained by Robert Clive, an officer of the British 
East India Company, on the field of Plassey 1 (1757) virtually 
laid, in the northeastern region of the peninsula, the basis of 
Britain’s great Indian Empire. 

The end came in 1763 with the Peace of Paris. France ceded 
to England Canada and all her possessions in North America east 
of the Mississippi River, save New Orleans and a little adjoining 
land (which, along with the French territory west of the Missis¬ 
sippi, had already been given to Spain), and two little islands in 
the neighborhood of Newfoundland, which she was allowed to 
retain to dry fish on. She also withdrew from India as a political 
rival of England. England’s supremacy in the colonial world 
and her mastery of the sea were now firmly established. This 
position, notwithstanding severe losses of which we shall speak 
immediately, she has maintained up to the present day. 

727 . The American Revolution (i 775 -i 783 ). The French 
and Indian War was the prelude to the War of American Inde¬ 
pendence. The overthrow of the French power in America made 
the English colonists less dependent than hitherto upon the 
mother country, since this removed their only dangerous rival 
and enemy on the continent. Clear-sighted statesmen had pre¬ 
dicted that when the colonists no longer needed England’s help 
against the French they would sever the bonds uniting them to 
the homeland, if at any time these bonds chafed them. 

And very soon the bonds did chafe. A majority in Parliament, 
thinking that the colonists should help pay the expenses of colo¬ 
nial defense, insisted upon taxing them. The colonists maintained 

1 The prelude to this battle was a terrible crime committed by Siraj-ud-Daula, viceroy 
of Bengal and other provinces. Moved by anger at the refusal of the British official to 
surrender certain fugitives, and urged on by French agents, the viceroy attacked the 
British fort and factory at Calcutta and, having secured one hundred and forty-six 
prisoners, thrust them into a contracted guardroom which was provided with only two 
small grated windows, — what in the story of India is known as "the Black Hole of 
Calcutta.” During the course of a sultry night all but twenty-three of the unfortunate 
prisoners died of suffocation. It was in response to the cry which arose for vengeance 
that Robert Clive was sent by the British officials at Madras to chastise Bengal. 


§ 728 ] LEGISLATIVE INDEPENDENCE OF IRELAND 


507 


that they could be justly taxed only through their own legislative 
assemblies. The British government refusing to acknowledge this 
principle, the colonists took up arms in defense of those rights 
and liberties which their fathers had won with so hard a struggle 
from English kings on English soil. 

France, moved largely by genuine sympathy with the cause of 
the colonists, gave them generous aid. Spain and Holland also 
were both drawn into the struggle, fighting against their old-time 


rival and foe. 

The war was ended by the Peace of Paris (1783). England 
acknowledged the independence of the thirteen colonies,—and 
a Greater Britain began its separate career in the New World. 
At the same time England was constrained to restore or to cede 
various islands and territories to France and to Spain. The 
magnificent empire with which she had emerged from the Seven 
Years’ War seemed shattered and ruined beyond recovery. 

But there were yet left to England Canada and India; and 
only recently Australia had come into her possession. And then 
Britain was yet mistress of the seas. There were elements here 
which might become factors of a new empire greater than the 
one which had been lost. But no Englishman standing in the 
gloom of the year 1783 could look far enough into the future 
to foresee the greatness and splendor of Britain’s second empire 
which was to rise out of the ruins of the first. 

728 . Legislative Independence of Ireland (1782). While the 
War of American Independence was going on, the Irish, taking 
advantage of the embarrassment of the British government, 
demanded legislative independence. Since the Norman period 
Ireland had had a Parliament of her own, but it was dependent 
upon the British crown, and at this time was subordinate to 
the British Parliament, which asserted and exercised the right 
to bind Ireland by its laws. This the Anglo-Irish patriots strenu¬ 
ously resisted and drew up a Declaration of Rights wherein they 
demanded the legislative independence of Ireland. Fear of a 
revolt led England to grant the demands of the patriots and 
acknowledge the independence of the Irish Parliament. 


508 ENGLAND IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY [§ 729 

729 . The Abolition of the Slave Trade. Intimately con¬ 
nected with the great religious revival led by the Wesleys and 
Whitefield were certain philanthropic movements which hold a 
prominent place in the history of the moral and social life not 
only of England but of humanity. The most noteworthy of these 
was that resulting in the abolition of the. African slave trade. 

We have noticed how at the opening of the eighteenth century 
England secured from Spain the contract for providing her Amer¬ 
ican colonies with negro slaves (sect. 722). There was then little 
or no moral disapproval of this iniquitous traffic. But one effect 
of the religious revival was the calling into existence of much 
genuine philanthropic feeling. This sentiment expressed itself in 
a movement for the abolition of the inhuman trade. 

The leaders of the movement were Thomas Clarkson (1760- 
1846) and William Wilberforce (1759-1833). The terrible dis¬ 
closures which were made of the atrocious cruelty of the slave 
dealers stirred the public indignation and awakened the national 
conscience. Finally, in 1807, after twenty years of agitation a 
law was passed abolishing the trade. 1 This signaled as great 
a moral victory as ever was won in the British Parliament, for 
the aroused moral sentiment of the nation was the main force 
that carried the reform measure through the Houses. 2 

730 . The Industrial Revolution. We turn now from the 
political, religious, and moral realms to the industrial domain. 
In this sphere of British life the latter part of the eighteenth 
century witnessed a wonderful revolution. It was • England's 
commercial supremacy which had prepared the way for the great 
industrial development. The outward movement had created a 
world-wide market for British goods. She had become "the 
workshop of the world.” Naturally manufactures were encouraged, 

1 Denmark had abolished the traffic in 1802. In the United States the importation 
of slaves was illegal after 1808. Before 1820 most civilized states had placed the trade 
under the ban. 

2 Another important humanitarian movement of the century was that of prison reform. 

1 his was effected chiefly through the labors of a single person, the philanthropist John 
Howard (1726-1790), who devoted his life to effecting a reform in prison conditions and 
discipline. 


§ 730] 


INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION 


509 


and inventive genius and ingenuity stimulated to the utmost in 
devising improved processes in the industrial arts. The result 
was an industrial revolution such as the centuries known to his¬ 
tory had never witnessed before. 

In order that we may get the right point of view here and be 
able to appreciate the importance of the industrial revolution 
of which we speak, it is necessary that we should first note the 
remarkable fact that while civilization during historic times had 
made great advances on many lines and in many domains, in 
the industrial realm it had remained almost stationary from the 
dawn of history. At the middle of the eighteenth century all the 
industrial arts were being carried on in practically the same way 
that they were followed six or seven thousand years before in 
Egypt and Babylonia. 

Suddenly all this was changed by a few inventions. About 1767 
Hargreaves invented the spinning jenny. From the beginning 
of history, indeed from a period lost in the obscurity of prehistoric 
times, all the thread used in weaving had been made by twisting 
each thread separately. The spinning jenny, when perfected, 1 
with a single attendant twisted hundreds of threads at once. 
Within twenty years from the time of this invention there were 
between four and five million spindles in use in England. 

It was now possible to produce thread in unlimited quantities. 
The next thing needed was improved machinery for weaving it 
into cloth. This was soon provided by Cartwright’s power loom 
(1785). The next requisite was motive power to run the new 
machinery. At just this time James Watt brought out his inven¬ 
tion, or rather improvement, of the steam engine (1785). In its 
ruder form it had been used in the mines; now it was introduced 
into the factories. 

The primary forces of the great industrial revolution — the 
spinning jenny, the power loom, and the steam engine—were 
now at work. The application, in the first half of the nineteenth 
century, of the steam engine to transportation purposes gave the 
world the steam railroad and the steamship. 

1 It was perfected by Arkwright and Crompton by 1779. 


510 ENGLAND IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY [§ 731 

These inventions and discoveries in the industrial realm mark 
an epoch in the history of civilization. We have to go back to 
prehistoric times to find in this domain any inventions or dis¬ 
coveries like them in their import for human progress. There is 
nothing between Menes in Egypt and George III in Britain with 
which to compare them. The discovery of fire, the invention of 
metal tools, and the domestication of animals and plants (sects. 
6-9),— these inventions and achievements of prehistoric man 
are alone worthy, in their effects upon human society, of being 
placed alongside them. 

731 . Import to England of the Industrial Revolution. The 

great industrial revolution exerted a determining influence upon 
the course and issue of the French Revolution and of the Napo¬ 
leonic Wars which grew out of it. It armed Britain, through the 
wealth it created, for the great fight, and thus enabled her to play 
the important and decisive part she did in that period of titanic 
struggle. "It is our improved steam engine,” says Lord Jeffrey 
in his eulogy of Watt (written in 1819), "which has fought the 
battles of Europe and exalted and sustained through the late 
tremendous contest the political greatness of our land.” It was 
the steam engine that created the wealth which enabled England 
to carry on the fight against Napoleon, and which did more per¬ 
haps than any other agency in giving direction to the course of 
events during the years of his domination. 1 

732 . Conclusion. With the French Revolution we reach a 
period in which English history must be regarded from the view¬ 
point of France. Indeed, for the space of half a generation after 
the rise of Napoleon to power, all European history becomes 
largely biographical and centers about that unique personality. 
Consequently we shall drop the story of British history at this 
point and let it blend with the story of the Revolution and that 
of the Napoleonic Empire. 

1 The Industrial Revolution was effected in England several decades in advance of 
its invasion of continental Europe, partly because of her commercial supremacy and the 
world-wide markets open to her manufacturers and partly because of the abundance of 
her coal and iron supplies. 


§ 732] 


REFERENCES 


5ii 

All that we here need notice is that the Napoleonic Wars, in 
their Anglo-French phase, were essentially a continuation—and 
the end—of the second Hundred Years’ War between England 
and France. Napoleon, having seized supreme power in France, 
endeavored to destroy England’s commercial supremacy and to 
regain for France that position in the colonial world from which 
she had been thrust by England. But this momentous struggle, 
like all the others in which England had engaged with her ancient 
foe,—save the one in which she lost her American colonies,— 
only resulted, as we shall see later, in bringing into her hands 
additional colonial possessions, and in placing her naval power 
and commercial supremacy on a firmer basis than ever before. 

References. For the most suggestive short work on the period, turn to 
Seeley, J. R., The Expansion of England. Written on somewhat similar lines 
is Caldecott, A., English Colonization and Empire , chaps, iii-v. Lecky, 
W. E. H., History of England in the Eighteenth Century , 7 vols., is the best 
comprehensive work. Lavell, C. F., and Payne, C. E., Imperial England, 
chaps, iv-vi. For the naval history of the period, see Mahan, A. T., The In¬ 
fluence of Sea Power upon History, chaps, v-xiv. 

Biographies: Morley, J., Walpole ; Southey, R., Life of Wesley, Green, 
W. D., William Pitt, Earl of Chatham ; Harrison, F., Chatham ; Macaulay, 
T. B., Essays on Plorace Walpole, the Earl of Chatham (two essays), Lord 
Clive, and Warren Hastings. 

For the growth of the British Cabinet: Blauvelt, M. T., The Development 
of Cabinet Government in-England-, and Jenks, E., Parliamentary England. 
For the rise of Methodism: Overton, J. H., The Evangelical Revival in the 
Eighteenth Century. For the French and British in America: Fiske, J., New 
England and New France , chaps, vii-x ; and Parkman, F., Montcalm and 
Wolfe , 2 vols. For the conflict between Britain and her American colonies: 
Lecky, W. E. H., The American Revolution (ed. by James Albert Woodburn). 
For industrial and social Britain: Cheyney, E. P., An Introduction to the 
Industrial and Social History of England, chap. viii. 


//. THE FRENCH REVOLUTION AND THE 

NAPOLEONIC ERA 

( 1789 - 1815 ) 

CHAPTER LXVI 

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

( 1789 - 1799 ) 

I. CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION; THE STATES-GENERAL 

OF 1789 

733 . Introductory. The French Revolution was a revolt of 
the French people against royal despotism and class privilege. 
"Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity’’ was the motto of the Revo¬ 
lution. In the name of these principles great crimes were indeed 
committed, but these excesses of the Revolution are not to be 
confounded with its true spirit and aims. The French people in 
1789 contended for substantially the same principles that the 
English people defended in 1642 and 1688, and that the Amer¬ 
ican colonists maintained in 1776. It is only as we view them 
in this light that we can feel a sympathetic interest in the men 
and the events of this tumultuous period of French history. 

734 . Causes of the Revolution. Chief among the causes of 
the French Revolution were the abuses and extravagances of the 
Bourbon monarchy, the unjust privileges enjoyed by the nobil¬ 
ity and the higher clergy, the wretched condition of the poorer 
classes of the people, and the revolutionary character and spirit 
of French philosophy and literature. To these must be added, 
as a proximate cause, the influence of the American Revolu¬ 
tion. In the following sections we will speak briefly of these 
several matters. 


5 12 


§ 735] 


THE BOURBON MONARCHY 


513 


735. The Bourbon Monarchy. We simply repeat what we 
have already learned when we say that the authority of the French 
crown under the Bourbons had become unbearably despotic and 
oppressive. The life and property of every person in France were 
at the arbitrary disposal of the king. Persons were thrown into 
prison without even knowing the offense for which they were 
arrested. The taxes were imposed by the authority of the king 
alone. They struck the poor rather than the rich, the nobles and 
the clergy being practically exempt. In consequence of a miser¬ 
able and corrupt system of collection, 1 not more than one half 
or two thirds of the money wrung from the taxpayers ever reached 
the royal treasury. 

The most oppressive of the various taxes was the salt tax 
( gabelle ), which was a state monopoly. In some districts every 
family was forced to buy annually seven pounds of salt for each 
member of the household above seven years of age. 

The public money thus harshly and wastefully collected was in 
large part squandered in maintaining a court the scandalous 
extravagances of which would shame a Turkish sultan. 

736. The Nobility. The French nobility on the eve of the 
Revolution numbered probably between twenty and thirty thou¬ 
sand families, comprising about a hundred or a hundred and fifty 
thousand persons. Although owning perhaps one fifth of the 
soil of France and exercising many vexatious feudal rights over 
much of the land belonging to peasant proprietors, still these 
nobles paid scarcely any taxes. 

The higher nobility were chiefly the pensioners of the king, 
the ornaments of his court, living a great part of the year in 
riotous luxury at Paris and Versailles. Stripped of their ancient 
power, they still retained all the old pride and arrogance of their 
order and clung tenaciously to the shreds of their feudal privileges 
and exemptions. The rents of their estates, with which they 
supplemented the bounty of the king, were wrung from their 

1 A large part of the taxes were farmed; that is, a body of capitalists were given the 
contract of collecting them. These farmers, as they were called, paid the government a 
sum agreed upon ; all over this amount which they collected formed their profits. 


5i4 


THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 


[§ 737 


wretched tenants with pitiless severity. The lesser nobles were 
more generally found on their estates, many of them living in 
a humble and pinched way not very different from that of 
the peasants. 

737. The Clergy. The upper clergy formed a decayed feudal 
hierarchy. A third of the lands of France was in their hands, 
and this immense property was almost wholly exempt from 
taxation. The bishops and abbots were usually drawn from the 
ranks of the nobility, being attracted to the service of the Church 
rather by its enormous revenues and the social distinction con¬ 
ferred by its offices than by the inducements of piety. They 
owed their position to royal appointment, and commonly spent 
their princely incomes, derived from the Church properties and 
the tithe exacted from the peasants, in luxurious life at court. As 
a class they had lost all credit and authority with the people 
whose shepherds they ostensibly were. 

The lower clergy, made up in the main of humble parish priests, 
were drawn largely from the peasant class, and shared their pov¬ 
erty. Their salaries were mere pittances compared with the 
princely incomes enjoyed by the bishops and abbots. They were 
naturally in sympathy with the lower classes to which by birth 
they belonged, and shared their feelings of dislike toward the 
great prelates. 

738. The Commons, or Third Estate. Below the two priv¬ 
ileged orders stood the non-privileged commons, known as the 
Tiers Etcit, or Third Estate. This class embraced all the nation 
aside from the nobility and the clergy,— that is to say, the great 
bulk of the population. It numbered probably about twenty-five 
million souls. The order was divided into two chief classes: 
namely, the bourgeoisie, or middle class, and the peasantry. 

The middle class, which was comparatively small in numbers, 
was made up of the well-to-do and wealthy merchants, traders, 
lawyers, and other professional men. It constituted the most intel¬ 
ligent portion of the French nation. It was from this class that 
came most of the leaders of the revolutionary movement during 
its earlier stages. 


§ 739] THE SPIRIT OF FRENCH PHILOSOPHY 515 

The peasants constituted the majority of the Third Estate. 
Though virtually all the French peasantry had long since been 
freed from the personal servitude of mediaeval serfdom, and many 
had become the owners of the land they tilled, still the majority 
owed to some feudal lord tolls on the roads and ferries and dues 
at the market-place. Furthermore, they must grind their grain at 
the lord’s mill, press their grapes at his winepress, and bake their 
bread at his oven, paying for the use of mill, press, and oven a 
heavy toll. In early feudal times these things were intended for 
the advantage of the serf, but now they had become oppressive 
monopolies and instruments of extortion. 

It is true that during the eighteenth century the condition of 
perhaps the majority of the French peasants had been much 
improved, and that on the eve of the Revolution their state was 
much more tolerable than that of the peasantry in the countries 
of central and eastern Europe. The number of peasant proprie¬ 
tors had become large and was steadily increasing, and in many 
districts at least was greater than at any earlier period. Yet 
never had a more rebellious spirit stirred in the French peas¬ 
antry than at just this time. And the reason of this was because 
the system under which they lived, as has been tersely said, 
"[though] not more severe, was more odious” than ever before,— 
more odious because the peasant of 1789 , being more intelligent, 
realized more keenly the wrongs he suffered and knew better his 
rights as a man than did the ignorant, stolid peasant of the pre¬ 
vious century. 

739. The Revolutionary Spirit of French Philosophy. French 
philosophy in the eighteenth century was skeptical and revolu¬ 
tionary. The names of the great writers Voltaire and Rousseau 1 
suggest at once its tone and spirit. Voltaire ( 1694 - 1778 ) gave 
expression, forcible and striking, to what the people were vaguely 
thinking and feeling. He has been called "the magician of the art 
of writing.” He had a most marvelous faculty of condensing 

1 Other names are Montesquieu (1689-1755), whose most important work is entitled 
The Spirit of Laws, and Diderot (1713-1784) and D’Alembert (1717-1783), who were 
the chief of the so-called Encyclopedists, the compilers of an immense work in twenty- 
eight volumes. 


S i6 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION [§740 

thought; putting whole philosophies in an epigram, he supplied 
the French people with proverbs for a century. His aim was to 
make justice and reason dominant in human affairs. He disbelieved 
in revealed religion ; 1 he would have men follow simply their inner 
sense of what is right and reasonable. His writings stirred all 
Europe as well as all France, and did so much to prepare the minds 

and hearts of men for the Revo¬ 
lution that in one sense there 
was much truth in his declara¬ 
tion-, "I have accomplished 
more in my day than either 
Luther or Calvin.” 

Rousseau (1712-1778), like 
Voltaire, had neither faith nor 
hope in existing institutions. 
Society and government seemed 
to him contrivances designed by 
the strong for the enslavement 
of the weak: " Man was born 
free and is everywhere in chains” 
is the burden of his complaint. 
He would have men give up their artificial life in society and 
return to the simplicity of what he called a a state of nature.” He 
declared that untutored tribes are happier than civilized men. 
He drew such an idyllic picture of the life of man in a state of 
nature that Voltaire, after reading his treatise thereon, wrote him 
that it filled him with a longing to go on all fours. 

The tendency and effect of this skeptical philosophy was to 
create hatred and contempt for the institutions of both State 
and Church, and to foster discontent with the established order 
of things. 

740 . Influence of the American Revolution. Not one of the 
least potent of the proximate causes of the French Revolution 
was the successful establishment of the American republic. The 

1 By some of Voltaire’s disciples his doctrines were developed into atheism; but 
Voltaire himself was a deist, combating alike atheism and Christianity. 



Fig. 128. Voltaire. (From a 
statue by Hendon) 



741] 


END OF THE REIGN OF LOUIS XV 


517 


republican simplicity of the newborn state, contrasting so strongly 
with the extravagance and artificiality of the court at Versailles, 
elicited the unbounded admiration of the French people. In this 
young republic of the Western world they saw realized the Arcadia 
of their philosophy. It was no longer a dream. They themselves 
had helped to make it real. Here the rights of man had been 
recovered and vindicated. And now this liberty which the French 
people had helped the American colonists to secure, they were 
impatient to see France herself enjoy. 

741. End of the Reign of Louis XV; "After us the Deluge.” 
The long-gathering tempest is now ready to break over France. 
Louis XV died in 1774. In the early part of his reign his subjects 
had affectionately called him "the Well-Beloved,” but long before 
his death all their early love and admiration had been turned into 
hatred and contempt. Besides being despotically inclined, the 
king was indolent and scandalously profligate. During twenty 
years of his reign he was wholly under the influence of the 
notorious Madame de Pompadour. 

The inevitable issue of this orgy of folly and extravagance 
seems to have been clearly enough perceived by the chief actors 
in it, as is shown by that reckless phrase attributed to the king 
and his favorite,—"After us the deluge.” And after them the 
deluge indeed did come. The near thunders of the approaching 
tempest could already be heard when Louis XV lay down to die. 

742. The Accession of Louis XVI ( 1774 ); Financial 
Troubles ; the Meeting of the Notables ( 1 787 ). Louis XV left 
the tottering throne to his grandson, Louis XVI, then only 
twenty years of age. He had recently been married to the beau¬ 
tiful and light-hearted Archduchess Marie Antoinette of Austria, 
daughter of the empress-queen Maria Theresa. 

How to raise money was the urgent and anxious question with 
the government. France was on the verge of bankruptcy. The 
king called to his side successively Turgot, Necker, and other 
eminent statesmen as his ministers of finance; but their policies 
and remedies availed little or nothing. The traditions of the 
court and the heartless selfishness of the privileged classes 


518 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION [§743 

rendered reform in taxation and efficient retrenchment impossible. 
The national debt grew constantly larger. 

In 1787 the king summoned the Notables, a body composed 
chiefly of great lords and prelates, who had not been called to 
advise with the king since the year 1626. But miserable coun¬ 
selors were they all. Refusing to give up any of their feudal privi¬ 
leges, or to tax the property of their own orders that the enormous 
public burdens which were crushing the commons might be light¬ 
ened, their coming together resulted in nothing. 

743. The Calling of the States-General; the Elections; the 
Cahiers. As a last resort it was resolved to summon the united 
wisdom of the nation, to call together the States-General, the 
almost-forgotten national assembly, composed of representatives 
of the three estates,— the nobility, the clergy, and the commons. 

In December, 1788, the king by proclamation called upon the 
French people to elect deputies to this body, which had not met 
to deliberate upon the affairs of France for a period of one hun¬ 
dred and seventy-five years. Divine-right royalty had seen no 
necessity hitherto of seeking counsel of the people. 

In connection with the elections there had been made by the 
king’s advisers a momentous decision, one which practically in¬ 
volved the fate of the monarchy. The commons had insisted upon 
being allowed double representation, that is, as many deputies as 
both the other orders, and had been authorized to send up six 
hundred deputies, while the nobility and the clergy were each to 
have only three hundred representatives. 

The electors had been instructed to draw up statements of 
grievances and suggestions of reform for the information and 
guidance of the States-General. These documents, which are 
known as cahiers , form a valuable record of the France of 1789,— 
of the grievances of the people, and of their ideas of reform. One 
demand common to them all is that the nation through its repre¬ 
sentatives shall have part in the government. Those of the Third 
Estate call for the abolition of feudal rents and services and for 
the equalization among the orders of the burdens of taxation. 
In a word, they were petitions for equality and justice. 


§ 744 ] CREATION OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY 519 

744. The States-General changed into the National As¬ 
sembly. On the fifth of May, 1789, a memorable date, the dep¬ 
uties to the States-General met at Versailles. Thither the eyes 
of the nation were now turned in hope and expectancy. Surely if 
the redemption of France could be worked out by human wisdom, 
it would now be effected. At the very outset a dispute arose be¬ 
tween the privileged orders and the commons respecting the man¬ 
ner of voting. It had been the ancient custom of the body for 
each order to deliberate in its own hall, and for the vote upon all 
questions to be by orders. 1 But the commons now demanded that 
this old custom should be ignored, and that the voting should 
be by individuals; for should the vote be taken by orders, then 
their double representation would be a mere mockery, and the 
clergy and nobility by combining could always outvote them. For 
five weeks the quarrel kept everything in a deadlock. 

Finally the commons took a decisive, revolutionary step. They 
declared themselves the National Assembly, and then invited the 
other two orders to join them in their deliberations, plainly inti¬ 
mating that, if they did not choose to do so, the commons would 
proceed to the consideration of public affairs without them. 

King, nobles, and prelates were alarmed at the bold attitude 
assumed by the commons. The king, in helpless alarm, suspended 
the sitting of the rebellious deputies and guarded the door of 
their hall. But the commons, gathering in the tennis court, a 
great barnlike building, bound themselves by oath not to separate 
until they had framed a constitution for France. 

Soon the commons were joined by a few of the nobility and 
a larger number of the deputies of the clergy. It looked as though 
the three orders, were going to coalesce. The court party labored 
to prevent this. A royal sitting, or joint meeting of the three es¬ 
tates, was held. The king read a speech in which, assuming the 
tone of a British Stuart, he admonished the commons not to 
attack the privileges of the other orders, and then commanded the 

1 That is to say, the majority of the representatives of each order decided the vote 
for that order, and then two of these majority votes registered the decision of the whole 
body of deputies. 


5 20 


THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 


[§ 74S 


deputies of the three orders to retire to their separate halls. The 
clergy and the nobility obeyed. The commons kept their seats. 

At this juncture the master of ceremonies somewhat pertly 
said to them, "You heard the king’s command?” Thereupon 
Mirabeau, one of the leaders of the commons, a man of "Jupiter- 
like” mien and tone, turned upon the messenger with these 
memorable words: "Go, tell those who sent you that we are here 
by the command of the people, and here we shall stay until 
driven out at the point of the bayonet.” The poor official was 
so frightened at the terrible Mirabeau that he straightway sought 
the door, withdrawing from the assembly, however, backwards, as 
he had been wont to do in retiring from the presence of the king. 
His instincts were right. He was indeed in the presence of the 
sovereign,— the newborn sovereign of France. 

The triumph of the Third Estate was soon complete. Real¬ 
izing that it was futile and dangerous longer to oppose the will of 
the commons, the king ordered those of the nobles and clergy 
who had not yet joined them to do so, and they obeyed. The 
States-General thus became in reality the National Assembly. 


II. THE NATIONAL OR CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY 
(JUNE 17 , 1789 -SEPTEMBER 30 , 1791 ) 

745 . Prominent Men in the Assembly. Lamartine declares 
that the National Assembly was " the most imposing body of men 
that ever represented not only France but the human race.” 
It was impressive not so much from the ability or genius of its 
individual members, though the picked men of France were here 
gathered, as through the tremendous interests it held in its hands. 
Yet there were in the Assembly a number of men whose names 
cannot be passed in silence. 

Among the nobility was the patriotic Lafayette, who had won 
the admiration of his countrymen by splendid services rendered 
the struggling republic in the New World. His influence at 
this time was probably greater than that of any other man 
in France. 


§ 746 ] 


STORMING OF THE BASTILLE 


521 


Belonging by birth to the same order, but sitting now as a 
deputy of the commons, was Mirabeau, a large-headed, dissolute, 
unscrupulous man, an impetuous orator, the mouthpiece of the 
Revolution. But though violent in speech he was moderate in 
counsel. He wanted to right the wrongs of the people, yet with¬ 
out undermining the throne. He wanted reform but not revolu¬ 
tion. He aspired to be a leader, but no one at first had confidence 
in him, such had been his past life. 

Arthur Young said of him, "His 
character is a dead weight upon 
him.” Yet, notwithstanding his lack 
of private virtues, Mirabeau’s qual¬ 
ities of leadership at length gained 
for him recognition, and he was at 
one time president of the National 
Assembly. But his life of dissipa¬ 
tion had undermined his constitution. 

He died in 1791, despairing of the 
future for France. 

Still another eminent representa¬ 
tive of the commons was Abbe 
Sieyes, a person of wonderful facility 
in framing constitutions. France 
will have much need of such talent, as we shall see. Sieyes 
had recently stirred all France by a remarkable pamphlet entitled 
What is the Third Estate ? ( Qu’est-ce que le Tiers Etat?) He 
answers, "Everything!” "What has it been hitherto?” "Noth¬ 
ing!” "What does it wish?,” "To be something.” 

746. Storming of the Bastille (July 14 , 1789 ). Hardly had 
the National Assembly come into being at Versailles before Paris 
became the scene of what may be regarded as the opening act of 
the Revolution. The news of the dismissal by the king of a 
minister in whom the people had great confidence, incited them 
to action. On the morning of July 14 a great mob assaulted the 
Bastille, the old state prison and, in the eyes of the people, 
the emblem of royal despotism. In a few hours the fortress 



Fig. 129. Mirabeau. (After 
a painting by E Massard ) 


5 22 


THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 


[§ 747 


was in the hands of the people. The governor and others of 
the defenders of the place were murdered, their heads placed 
at the end of pikes, and thus borne through the streets. The walls 
of the hated old prison were razed, and the people danced on the 
spot. The key of the dungeon was sent by Lafayette to Wash¬ 
ington "as a trophy of the spoils of despotism.” In a letter ac¬ 
companying the gift, Lafayette wrote: "That the principles of 
America opened the Bastille is not to be doubted, and therefore 
the key goes to the right place.” 1 

The destruction of the Bastille by the Paris mob was the death 
knell not only of Bourbon despotism in France but of royal 
tyranny everywhere. The intelligence of the event was received 
with rejoicing in America and wherever the ideas and principles 
of self-government were entertained. When the news reached 
England the great statesman Fox, perceiving its significance for 
liberty, exclaimed, "How much is this the greatest event that 
ever happened in the world, and how much the best!” 

Louis XVI regarded the matter with different feelings. When 
news of the affair was carried to him at Versailles he exclaimed, 
"What, Rebellion /” "No sire,” was the response; "it is Revo¬ 
lution .The great French Revolution had indeed begun. 

747 . The Abolition of Privileges (August 4 , 1789 ). As the 
news of the storming of the Bastille spread through France the 
peasantry in many districts, following the example set them by 
the capital, destroyed the local bastilles and sacked and burned 
the castles of the nobles. The main object of the peasants was to 
destroy the title deeds in the archives of the manor houses, since 
it was by virtue of these charters that the lords exercised so many 
rights over the lands of the peasants and exacted so many teasing 
and iniquitous tolls and dues. This terrorism caused the begin¬ 
ning of what is known as the emigration of the nobles, that is, 
their flight beyond the frontiers of France. 

The storm without hastened matters within the National Assem¬ 
bly at Versailles. The privileged orders now realized that, to save 
themselves from the fury of the masses, they must give up those 

1 The rusty relic may be seen today in a case at Mount Vernon. 


§ 748 ] DECLARATION OF THE RIGHTS OF MAN 523 

vexatious feudal privileges which were a main cause of the suf¬ 
ferings and the anger of the people. Rising in the tribune, two 
young and liberal-minded members of the nobility represented 
that they were willing to renounce all their feudal rights and ex¬ 
emptions. A contagious enthusiasm was awakened by this act 
of patriotic generosity. The impulsiveness of the Gallic heart was 
never better illustrated. Everybody wanted to make sacrifices 
for the common good. The nobles and the clergy, crowding to the 
tribune, strove with one another in generous rivalry to see who 
should make the greatest sacrifices in the surrender of rents, 
tolls, fees, and feudal dues. 1 Thus in a single night much of the 
rubbish of the broken-down feudal system was cleared away. 

748. The Declaration of the Rights of Man ( 1789 ). After the 
abolition of the feudal system the next work of the National 
Assembly was the drawing up of a Declaration of the Rights of 
Man. This was in imitation of what had been done by the 
American patriots. 

The dominant notes of the Declaration were (1) the equality of 
men,—"Men are born and remain free and equal” ; (2) the sov¬ 
ereignty of the people,—"All sovereignty resides essentially 
in the nation”; and (3) the impartial nature of law,—"Law 
is the expression of the general will . . . and should be the same 
for all.” 

749. Nationalization of Church Property; the Civil Consti¬ 
tution of the Clergy. Shortly after the promulgation of the Dec¬ 
laration of Rights, a Parisian mob fetched the king from Versailles 
to the capital. Their purpose in this was to hold him as a sort of 
hostage for the good conduct of the nobles and the foreign sov¬ 
ereigns while the new constitution was being prepared by the 
Assembly. 

For two years following this there was a comparative lull in the 
storm of the Revolution. Meanwhile the National Assembly was 
making sweeping reforms both in State and Church. One of the 

1 Tolls and dues were the lord’s rights over roads, ferries, bridges, markets, as well 
as over grinding grain, pressing grapes, and baking bread (cf. sect. 417). These were 
abolished without compensation. In lieu of other annoying feudal dues, specified pay¬ 
ments by the peasants were substituted. 


5H 


THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 


[§ 750 


most important of its measures and one far-reaching in its effects 
was the confiscation of the property of the Church. In all, 
property consisting largely of lands and worth it is estimated over 
a billion francs was by decree made the property of the nation. 1 

The nationalization of the property of the Church rendered it 
necessary that the nation should make some provision for the 
support of the clergy. This was done a little later by a decree 
known as the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, which pro¬ 
vided for the support of all ministers of religion through reason¬ 
able salaries paid by the nation. All the clergy, bishops 
and parish priests alike, were to be chosen by election, and 
all were to be required to take oath to support the new 
constitution. 

Naturally this conversion of the Church in France into a State 
Church created a schism in the nation. Out of a hundred and 
thirty-four bishops only four would take the prescribed oath. 
From this time on a large section of the French clergy became 
the bitter enemies of the Revolution. 

750. Flight and Arrest of the King ( 1791 ). The attempt of 
the king to make his way out of France and join the emigrant 
nobles now gave an entirely new turn to the course of the Revo¬ 
lution. Under cover of night the royal family in disguise left the 
Tuileries, and by post fled towards the frontier. When just a 
few hours more would have placed the fugitives in safety among 
friends, the Bourbon features of the king betrayed him, and the 
entire party was arrested and carried back to Paris. 

The attempted flight of the royal family was a fatal blow to the 
monarchy. It deepened the growing distrust of the king. The 
people began to talk of a republic. The word was only whispered 
as yet; but it was not long before those who did not shout vocif¬ 
erously, " Vive la Republique!” were hurried to the guillotine. 

1 It being found impossible to sell at once and at fair prices so large an amount of 
real estate, the Assembly, using the nationalized lands as security, issued against them 
currency notes, called assignats. As almost always happens in such cases, inflation of 
the currency resulted. Fresh issues of notes were made until they became quite worth¬ 
less, as in the case of the Continental notes issued by the Continental Congress in the 
American War of Independence. 


§751] THE JACOBINS AND THE CORDELIERS 525 

751. The Clubsi Jacobins and Cordeliers. In order to render 
intelligible the further course of the Revolution we must now 
speak of two clubs, or organizations, which came into prominence 
about this time, and which were destined to become more power¬ 
ful than the Assembly itself, and to be the chief instruments in 
inaugurating the Reign of Terror. These were the societies of the 
Jacobins and the Cordeliers . 1 The objects of these clubs were to 
watch for conspiracies of the Royalists and by constant agitation 
to keep alive the flame of the Revolution. 

752. The New Constitution. After a little more than two 
years’ deliberation the special task of the National Assembly, 
namely, the framing of a constitution for France, was completed. 
This instrument, which made the government of France a consti¬ 
tutional monarchy, was solemnly ratified by the king. The Na¬ 
tional Assembly then adjourned. 

III. THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY (OCTOBER 1, 1791- 

SEPTEMBER 19, 1792) 

753. The Membership of the Assembly; the Constitu¬ 
tionalists and the Girondins. The new constitution provided for 
a national legislature to be called the Legislative Assembly. This 
body was made up of several groups or parties, of which we need 
here notice only the Constitutionalists and the Girondins. The 
Constitutionalists, as their name implies, supported the new con¬ 
stitution, being in favor of a limited monarchy. The Girondins, 
so called from the department (the Gironde) whence their most 
noted leaders came, wanted to establish in France a federal 
republic like that just set up in the New World. 

754. The Temper of the Assembly. Some seemingly trivial 
matters will serve to illustrate the spirit of the new Assembly. 
At the very outset the members were much perplexed in regard 
to how they should address the king and "wound neither the 
national dignity nor the royal dignity.” Some were for using the 
titles Sire and Majesty, against which others indignantly protested, 

1 The Jacobins were so called from an old convent in which their first meetings were 
held ; the Cordeliers were named after a Franciscan convent where they assembled. 


THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 


[§ 755 


526 

declaring that "the law and the people are the only Majesty 
It was finally decided that Louis XVI should be called simply 
King of the French. 

Another thing which troubled the republican members was the 
gilded throne in which the king was wont to sit when he visited 
the Assembly. It was resolved that this article should be removed 
and an ordinary chair substituted for it, this to be placed in exact 
line with that occupied by the president of the Assembly. 

Again there were objections raised to the ceremony of the 
members rising and standing uncovered in the king’s presence. 
So it was decreed that the members might sit before royalty 
with their hats on. 

755. Beginning of War with Old Monarchies ( 1792 ). The 
kings of Europe were watching with the utmost concern the 
course of events in France. They regarded the cause of Louis XVI 
as their own. If the French people should be allowed to overturn 
the throne of their hereditary sovereign, who any longer would 
have respect for the divine right of kings? 

The warlike preparations of Austria—which had entered into 
an alliance with Prussia—alarmed the Revolutionists and led the 
Legislative Assembly to declare war against that power. A little 
later the allied armies of the Austrians and Prussians crossed the 
frontiers of France. Thus was taken the first step in a series of 
wars which were destined to last nearly a quarter of a century, and 
in which France almost single-handed was to struggle against the 
leagued powers of Europe and to illustrate the miracles possible 
to enthusiasm and genius. 

756. The Massacre of the Swiss Guards (August 10, 1792). 
The allies at first gained easy victories over the ill-disciplined 
forces of the Legislative Assembly, and the Duke of Brunswick, 
commander of the Prussian army, advanced rapidly upon Paris. 
An insolent proclamation which this general now issued, wherein 
he ordered the French nation to submit to their king, and 
threatened the Parisians with the destruction of their city should 
any harm be done the royal family, drove the French people 
frantic with indignation and rage. 


§ 756 ] 


MASSACRE OF THE SWISS GUARDS 


527 


The first outbreak of the popular fury occurred in Paris. The 
mob of the capital was swollen by the arrival of bands of picked 
men from other parts of France. From the south came the "six 
hundred Marseillais who knew how to die.” They brought with 
them "a better contingent than ten thousand pikemen,”—the 
Marseillaise Hymn, the martial song of the Revolution. 1 



Fig. 130. The Lion of Lucerne . 2 (From a photograph) 

On the morning of the 10 th of August the hordes of the city 
were mustered. The Palace of the Tuileries, defended by several 
hundred Swiss soldiers, the remnant of the royal guard, was 
assaulted. The royal family fled for safety to the hall of the 
Assembly close by. A terrible struggle followed in the corridors 
and upon the grand stairways of the palace. The Swiss stood 
"steadfast as the granite of their Alps.” But they were over¬ 
whelmed at last, and all were killed, either in the building itself 
or in the surrounding courts and streets. 2 

1 This famous war song was composed in 1792 by Rouget de Lisle, a young French 
engineer. 

2 The number of Swiss guards slain was over seven hundred. Their fidelity and 
devotion are commemorated by one of the most impressive monuments in Europe, the 






































528 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION [§757 

757. The Massacre of September ("Jail Delivery”). The 
army of the allies hurried on toward the capital to avenge the 
slaughter of the royal guards and to rescue the king. Paris was all 
excitement. "We must stop the enemy,” cried Danton, "by 
striking terror into the Royalists.” To this end the most atrocious 
measures were now adopted. It was resolved that the Royalists 
confined in the jails of the capital should be killed. A hundred 
or more men acted as executioners, and to them the prisoners 
were handed over after a hasty examination before self-appointed 
judges. The number of victims of this terrible "September 
Massacre,” as it is called, is conservatively estimated at from 
eight hundred to fourteen hundred. Europe had never before 
known such a "jail delivery.” It was the greatest crime of the 
French Revolution. 

758. Defeat of the Allies at Valmy ( 1792 ). Meanwhile, in 
the open field, the fortunes of war inclined to the side of the 
Revolutionists. The French army in the north was successful 
in checking the advance of the allies, and finally at Valmy suc¬ 
ceeded in inflicting upon them a decisive defeat, which caused 
their hasty retreat beyond the frontiers of France. The day of 
this victory the Legislative Assembly came to an end, and the 
same day the National Convention assembled. 

IV. THE NATIONAL CONVENTION (SEPTEMBER 20, 1792- 

OCTOBER 26, 1795) 

759. Parties in the Convention. The Convention, consisting 
of seven hundred and forty-nine deputies, among whom was the 
celebrated freethinker Thomas Paine, embraced two active groups, 
the Girondins and the Mountainists, the latter being so named 
from the circumstance that they sat on the upper benches in the 
Assembly hall. There were no monarchists; all were republicans. 
No one now dared to speak of a monarchy. 

so-called " Lion of Lucerne,” at Lucerne in Switzerland. In a large recess in a cliff a 
dying lion, pierced by a lance, protects with its paw the Bourbon lilies. The wonderfully 
lifelike figure is cut out of the natural rock. The designer of the memorial was the 
celebrated Danish sculptor Thorvaldsen. 


§ 760] ESTABLISHMENT OF THE REPUBLIC 


529 


It was the Mountainists who were to shape the measures of the 
Convention. Their leaders were Danton and Robespierre, deputies 
of Paris. The party was inferior in numbers to that of the Giron- 
dins, but was superior in energy and daring, and was, moreover, 
backed by the Parisian mob. 

760. The Establishment of the Republic (September 21 r 
1792); Beginning of the Revolutionary Propaganda. Almost 
the first act of the Convention was to abolish the monarchy. The 
motion for the abolition of royalty was not even discussed. "What 
need is there for discussion,” exclaimed a delegate, "where all are 
agreed? Courts are the hotbed of crime, the focus of corruption; 
the history of kings is the martyrology of nations.” 

The day following the establishment of the Republic was made 
the beginning of a new era, the first day of the Year I. That was 
to be regarded as the natal day of Liberty. A little later, incited 
by the success of the French armies, the Convention called upon 
all nations to rise against despotism, and pledged the aid of 
France to any people wishing to secure freedom. 

This call to the peoples of Europe to rise against their kings 
and to set up republican governments converted the revolutionary 
movement in France into a propaganda, and naturally made more 
implacable than ever the hatred toward the Revolution felt by all 
lovers and beneficiaries of the old order of things. The declara¬ 
tion was a main cause of the fresh coalition formed against the 
new Republic and of the war of 1793 . 

761. Trial and Execution of the King. The next work of the 
convention was the trial and execution of the king. He was 
brought before the bar of that body, charged with having conspired 
with the enemies of France, with having opposed the will of the 
people, and with having caused the massacre of the tenth of 
August. The sentence of the Convention was immediate death. 
On January 21 , 1793 , the unfortunate monarch, after a last sad 
interview with his wife and children, was conducted to the scaffold. 

762. Coalition against France; the Counter-Revolution in 
La Vendee. The regicide, together with the propaganda decree 
of the preceding year, awakened among all the old monarchies of 


530 


THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 


[§ 763 


Europe the most bitter hostility against the French Revolutionists. 
The act was interpreted as a threat against all kings. A grand 
coalition, embracing England, Austria, Prussia, the Protestant 
Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Sardinia, Tuscany, Naples, and the 
Holy Roman Empire, was formed to crush the republican move¬ 
ment. Armies aggregating more than a quarter of a million men 
threatened France at once on every frontier. 

While thus beset with foes without, the Republic was threat¬ 
ened with even more dangerous enemies within. The people of 
La Vendee, in western France, where the peasants were angered 
atvthe conscription decrees of the Convention, and where there 
1 was still a strong sentiment of loyalty to the Church and the 
monarchy, rose in revolt against the Revolutionists. 

763. Creation of the Revolutionary Tribunal and the Com¬ 
mittee of Public Safety ( 1793 ). The defeat of the French armies 
in the north and the advance of the allies caused the greatest ex¬ 
citement among the Parisian populace, who now demanded that the 
Convention should overawe the domestic enemies of the Revolution 
by the establishment of a judicial dictatorship, a sort of tribunal 
which should take cognizance of all crimes against the Republic. 

Danton, while acknowledging the injustice that the summary 
processes of such a court might do to many unjustly suspected, 
justified its establishment by arguing that in time of peace society 
lets the guilty escape rather than harm the innocent; but in 
times of public danger it should rather strike down the innocent 
than allow the guilty to escape. It was on this principle that 
France was to be governed for one terrible year. 

A little later was organized what was called the Committee of 
Public Safety, consisting of nine persons, members of the Con¬ 
vention. It was invested with dictatorial authority. The vast 
powers wielded by the committee were delegated to it for a single 
month only, but were renewed from month to month. 

We must bear in mind the character of these two bodies in 
order to follow intelligently the subsequent events of the Revo¬ 
lution and to understand how the atrocious tyranny of the Reign 
of Terror was exercised and maintained. 


§ 764 ] 


THE FALL OF THE GIRONDINS 


531 


764. The Fall of the Girondins. Still gloomier tidings came 
from every quarter,—news of reverses of the armies of the 
Republic in front of the allies and of successes of the counter¬ 
revolutionists in La Vendee. The Mountainists in the Conven¬ 
tion, supported by the rabble of Paris, urged the most extreme 
measures. The Girondins opposed these. The Parisian mob filled 
the city with cries of "Down with the Girondins! ” "If the per¬ 
sons of the people’s representatives be violated,” warningly ex¬ 
claimed one of the Girondin orators, " Paris will be destroyed, and 
soon the stranger will be compelled to inquire on which bank of 
the Seine the city stood.” 

The Girondins were finally overborne. An immense mob sur¬ 
rounded the hall of the Convention and demanded that their 
chiefs be given up as enemies of the Republic. Thirty-one of 
their leaders were surrendered and placed under arrest, a pre¬ 
liminary step to the speedy execution of many of them during 
the opening days of the Reign of Terror. Thus did the Parisian 
mob purge the National Convention of France, as the army 
purged Parliament in the English Revolution (sect. 678 ). 

The Reign of Terror (September, 1793-JuLY, 1794) 

765. The Great Committee of Public Safety; its Principle 
of Government. The perilous situation created by domestic in¬ 
surrection and foreign invasion demanded a strong executive. It 
was created. The Convention reorganized the Committee of Pub¬ 
lic Safety, which now became what is known as the Great Com¬ 
mittee of Public Safety, suspended the constitution, and invested 
the new board with supreme executive authority. For almost a 
full year the twelve men—of whom Robespierre was the most 
conspicuous—composing this body exercised absolute power over 
the life and property of every person in France. The Committee’s 
principle of government was simple. It governed by terror. Its 
rule is known as the "Reigri of Terror.” The people acquiesced 
in this system of government because persuaded that only thus 
could France be saved from anarchy and foreign subjection. 


THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 


[§ 766 


532 


766. The Execution of Marie Antoinette, of the Girondins, 
and of Madame Roland. One of the earliest victims of the guil¬ 
lotine under the organized Terror was the queen. The attention 
of the Revolutionists had been turned anew to the remaining 
members of the royal family by reason of the recognition by the 
allies of the Dauphin as king of France, 1 and by the recent 
alarming successes of their armies. The queen, who had now 

borne nine months’ imprisonment, 
was brought before the terrible 
Revolutionary Tribunal and con¬ 
demned to the guillotine. A hide¬ 
ous mob of men and women howled 
with savage delight around the cart 
which bore the unhappy queen to 
the scaffold. 

The guillotine was now fed daily 
with the best blood of France. Two 
weeks after the execution of the 
queen twenty of the chiefs of the 
Girondins, who had been kept in 
confinement since their arrest in 
the Convention, were pushed be¬ 
neath the knife. Hundreds of others 
followed. Most illustrious of all the victims after the queen was 
Madame Roland, who was accused of being the friend of the 
Girondins. An incident at the scaffold is related as a memorial of 
her. As she was about to lay her head beneath the knife, her eye, 
it is said, chanced to fall upon the statue of Liberty which stood 
near the scaffold. ”0 Liberty!” she exclaimed; "what crimes 
are committed in thy name! ” 

767. The New Calendar. While the Revolutionary Tribunal 
was clearing out of the way the enemies of the Republic by 
the quick processes of the guillotine, the Convention was busy 



Fig. i 31. The Guillotine 


1 The Dauphin, a mere child of eight years, was at this time a prisoner in the Temple 
(the old fortress of the Templars at Paris). He died in 1795, his death having been 
caused or at least hastened by the brutal ill usage he received at the hands of his jailers. 

















§ 768] ATTEMPT TO ABOLISH CHRISTIANITY 


533 


reforming the ancient institutions and customs of the land. They 
hated these as having been established by kings and aristocrats to 
enhance their own importance and to enslave the masses. They 
proposed to sweep these things all aside and give the world a 
fresh start. 

A new uniform system of weights and measures, known as the 
metric, 1 had already been planned by the National Assembly; 
a new mode of reckoning time was now introduced. The months 
were given new names, names expressive of the character of each. 
Each month was divided into three periods of ten days each, 
called decades, and each day into ten parts. The tenth day of 
each decade took the place of the old Sabbath. The five odd 
days not provided for in the arrangement were made festival days. 

768. Attempt to abolish Christianity. The old calendar hav¬ 
ing been abolished, the Revolutionists next proceeded to abolish 
Christianity. Some of the chiefs of the Commune of Paris de¬ 
clared that the Revolution should not rest until it had "dethroned 
the King of Heaven as well as the kings of earth.” They per¬ 
suaded the Bishop of Paris to abdicate his office, and his example 
was followed by many of the clergy throughout the country. 

The churches of Paris and of other cities were now closed, and 
the treasures of their altars and shrines confiscated to the state. 
The images of the Virgin and of the Christ were torn down, and 
the busts of Marat and other patriots set up in their stead. And 
as the emancipation of the world was now to be wrought not by 
the Cross but by the guillotine, that instrument took the place 
of the crucifix, and was called the "Holy Guillotine.” In many 
places all visible symbols of the ancient religion were destroyed; 
all emblems of hope in some cemeteries were obliterated, and over 
their gates were inscribed the words, "Death is eternal sleep.” 

769. Inauguration of the Worship of Reason. The madness 
of the people culminated in the worship of Reason. A celebrated 
beauty, personating the Goddess of Reason, was set upon the 
altar of Notre Dame in Paris as an object of homage and worship. 

l This reform was a most admirable one and must be regarded as one of the good 
outcomes of the Revolution. 


THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 


[§ 770 


534 - 

The example of Paris was followed generally throughout France. 
Churches were converted into temples of the new worship. The 
Sabbath having been abolished, the services of the temple were 
held onlv upon every tenth day. On that day the mayor or some 
popular leader mounted the altar and harangued the people, 
dwelling upon the news of the moment, the triumphs of the armies 

__ of the Republic, the glorious achievements 

of the Revolution, and the privilege of liv¬ 
ing in an era when one was oppressed 
neither by kings on earth nor by a King 
in Heaven. 

770. Fall of Hebert and Danton ( 1794 ). 

During the progress of events the Jacobins 
had become divided into three factions, 
headed respectively by Danton, Robes¬ 
pierre, and Hebert. To make his own 
power supreme, Robespierre resolved to 
crush the other two leaders. Hebert and 
his party were the first to fall, Danton and 
his adherents working with Robespierre 
to bring about their ruin. Danton and 
his party were the next to follow. The 
last words of Danton to the executioner were, "Show my head 
to the people; they do not see the like every day.” The grim 
request was granted. 

Robespierre was now supreme. His ambition was attained. "He 
stood alone on the awful eminence of the Holy Mountain.” But 
his turn was soon to come. 

771. Worship of the Supreme Being. One of the first acts 
of Robespierre after he had freed himself from his most virulent 
enemies was to give France a new religion in place of the recently 
established worship of Reason. Robespierre wished to sweep 
away Christianity as a superstition, but he would stop at deism. 
He did not believe that a state could be founded on atheism. 
"If God did not exist,” he declared, "it would behoove man 
to invent Him.” 



Fig. 132. Robespierre 
(F rom a French print) 


§ 772 ] 


THE TERROR AT PARIS 


535 


In a remarkable address delivered before the Convention, Robes¬ 
pierre eloquently defended the doctrines of God and immortality, 
and then closed his speech by offering for adoption this decree: 
"(i) The French people recognize the existence of the Supreme 
Being and the immortality of the soul; ( 2 ) they recognize that 
the worship most worthy of the Supreme Being is the practice of 
the duties of man; and ( 3 ) they put in the first rank of these 
duties to detest bad faith and tyranny, to punish tyrants and 
traitors, to rescue the unfortunate, to defend the oppressed, to do 
to others all the good one can, and to be unjust toward none.” 
The Convention adopted the resolution with the "utmost enthu¬ 
siasm.” The churches which had been converted into temples 
of the Goddess of Reason were now consecrated to the new worship 
of the Supreme Being. 

772. The Culmination of the Terror at Paris. At the same 
time that Robespierre was instituting the new worship, the Great 
Committee of Public Safety, of which he was generally regarded 
as the controlling spirit, was ruling France by a terrorism un¬ 
paralleled since the most frightful days at Rome. The prisons of 
Paris and of the departments were filled with suspected persons, 
until two hundred thousand prisoners were crowded into these 
republican bastilles. At Paris the dungeons were emptied of their 
victims and room made for fresh ones by the swift processes of the 
Revolutionary Tribunal, which in mockery of justice caused the 
prisoners to be brought before its bar in companies of ten or fifty 
or mere. Rank or talent was an inexpiable crime. "Were you not 
a noble?” asked the president of the tribunal of one of the ac¬ 
cused. "Yes,” was the reply. "Enough; another!” was the 
judge’s verdict. And so on through the long list each day brought 
before the court. 

The scenes about the guillotine seem mirrored from the In¬ 
ferno of Dante. Benches were arranged around the scaffold and 
rented to spectators, like seats in a theater. The market women 
of Paris, who were known as "the Furies of the Guillotine,” 
busied themselves with their knitting while watching the changing 
scenes of the bloody spectacle. In the space of seven weeks 


THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 


[§ 773 


536 


(June 10 -July 27 , 1794 ) the number of persons guillotined in 
Paris was thirteen hundred and seventy-six,—an average of over 
twenty-eight a day. 

773. The Fall of Robespierre ; Punishment of the Terrorists. 

The Reign of Terror had lasted about nine months when a re¬ 
action came. The successes of the armies of the Republic and 
the establishment of the authority of the Convention throughout 
the departments caused the people to look upon the wholesale 
executions that were daily taking place as unnecessary and cruel. 
They began to turn with horror and pity from the scenes of the 
guillotine. Robespierre was the first to be swept away by the 
reaction. The Convention denounced him and his adherents as 
enemies of the Republic. He was arrested, rescued by the rabble 
of Paris, rearrested and straightway sent to the guillotine, and 
along with him several of his friends and the greater part of the 
members of the Commune of Paris. 

The reaction which had swept away Robespierre and his asso¬ 
ciates continued after their fall. There was a general demand 
for the punishment of the Terrorists. The clubs of the Jacobins 
were closed, and that infamous society which had rallied and 
directed the hideous rabbles of the great cities was broken up. 
The Christian worship was reestablished. 

774. Effects of the Reign of Terror. The effect of the Terror 
upon France was just what the Terrorists had aimed to produce. 
It effectually cowed all opposition to the Revolution at home, 
thereby preserving the unity of France and enabling her to push 
the foreign foe from her soil. 

Outside of France the effects of the rule by terror were most 
unfavorable to the true cause of the Revolutionists. It destroyed 
the illusions of generous souls, like Coleridge, Wordsworth, and 
Southey in England, and caused among the earlier sympathizers 
with the Revolutionists a great revulsion of feeling. From being 
Liberals men became Conservatives and determined foes of all 
innovation and reform. The Revolution, at first so greatly ac¬ 
claimed, was discredited in the eyes of its best friends. It became 
identified in men’s minds with atheism and terrorism, and tc 


§ 775] BONAPARTE DEFENDS THE CONVENTION 537 

the present hour in the minds of many the French Revolution 
suggests nothing save foul blasphemies and guillotine horrors. 

775. Bonaparte defends the Convention (October 5, 1795). 
Experience had shown the defects of the revolutionary govern¬ 
ment, particularly in that it united both legislative and executive 
power in the same hands. The Convention now set about fram¬ 
ing a new constitution, which vested the executive power in a 
body called the Directory, consisting of five persons. It also pro¬ 
vided for two legislative bodies, known as the Council of Five 
Hundred and the Council of Ancients. 

Certain features of the new constitution displeased the Parisian 
mob. The sections of the turbulent capital again gathered their 
hordes. A mob of forty thousand men advanced to the attack 
of the Tuileries, where the Convention was sitting. As the mob 
came on they were met by a " whiff of grapeshot,” which sent 
them flying back in wild disorder. The man who trained the 
guns was a young artillery officer, a native of the island of 
Corsica,—-Napoleon Bonaparte. The Revolution had at last 
brought forth a man of genius capable of controlling and directing 
its tremendous energies. 


V. THE DIRECTORY (OCTOBER 27, 1795-NOVEMBER 9, 1799) 

776. The Republic becomes Aggressive. Under the Directory 
the Republic, which up to this time had been acting mainly on 
the defensive, very soon entered upon an aggressive policy. The 
Revolution having accomplished its work in France, having there 
put an end to despotism and abolished class privilege, now set 
itself about fulfilling its early promise of giving liberty to all 
peoples (sect. 760 ). 

Had not the minds and hearts of the people in all the neigh¬ 
boring countries been prepared to welcome the new order of 
things, the Revolution could never have spread itself as widely as 
it did. But everywhere irrepressible longings for equality and 
freedom, born of long oppression, were stirring the souls of men. 
The French armies were everywhere welcomed by the people 


THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 


[§ 777 


538 

as deliverers. Thus was France enabled to surround herself with 
a girdle of commonwealths. She conquered Europe not by her 
armies but by her ideas. "An invasion of armies/’ says Victor 
Hugo, "can be resisted: an invasion of ideas cannot be resisted.” 

The republics established were, it is true, short-lived; for the 
times were not yet ripe for the complete triumph of democratic 
ideas. But a great gain for freedom was made. The reestablished 
monarchies, as we shall see later, never dared to make themselves 
as despotic as those which the Revolution had overturned. 

777. The Plans of the Directory. Austria and England were 
the only formidable powers that still persisted in their hostility 
to the Republic. The Directors resolved to strike a decisive 
blow at the first of these implacable foes. To carry out their 
design two large armies, numbering about seventy thousand 
each, were mustered upon the Middle Rhine and intrusted to 
the command of the two young and energetic generals, Moreau 
and Jourdan, who were to make a direct invasion of Germany. 
A third army, numbering about forty-two thousand men, w&s 
assembled in the neighborhood of Nice, in southeastern France, 
and placed in the hands of Bonaparte, to whom was assigned the. 
work of driving the Austrians out of Italy. 

778. Bonaparte’s Italian Campaign (1796-1797). Straight¬ 
way upon receiving his command, Bonaparte, now in his twenty- 
seventh year, animated by visions of military glory to be gathered 
on the fields of Italy, hastened to join his army at Nice. He 
at once aroused all the latent enthusiasm of the soldiers by one 
of those short, stirring addresses for which he afterwards became 
so famous. "Soldiers,” said he, "you are badly fed and almost 
naked. ... I have come to lead you into the most fertile fields 
of the world ; there you will find large cities, rich provinces, honor, 
glory, and wealth. Soldiers of Italy, will you fail in courage?” 

If this address be placed alongside the decree of the Conven¬ 
tion offering the aid of France to all peoples desiring freedom 
(sect. 760 ), it will be realized with how alien a spirit Bonaparte 
here inspires the armies of republican France. He represents 
.Italy to the imagination of the soldiers of the French Republic 


§ 779] 


TREATY OF CAMPO FORMIO 


539 


merely as a country of rich cities to be despoiled, as a land 
whence France may draw unlimited tribute. The address marks 
the beginning of that transformation which in a few years changed 
the liberating armies of France into the scourge of Europe. 

Before the mountain roads were yet free from snow Bonaparte 
set in motion his army, which he had assembled on the coast 
near Genoa, and suddenly forced the passage of the mountains 
at the juncture of the Apennines and the Maritime Alps. Now 
followed a most astonishing series of French victories over the 
Austrians and their allies. As a result of the campaign a con¬ 
siderable part of northern Italy was formed into a commonwealth 
under the name of the Cisalpine Republic. Genoa was also trans¬ 
formed into the Ligurian Republic. 

779. Treaty of Campo Formio ( 1797 ). While Bonaparte had 
been gaining his surprising victories in Italy, Moreau and jourdan 
had been meeting with severe reverses in Germany. Bonaparte, 
having effected the work assigned to the army of Italy, now climbed 
the Eastern Alps and marched toward Vienna. The near approach 
of the French to his capital induced the Emperor Francis II to 
listen to proposals of peace. An armistice was agreed upon, and 
later the important Treaty of Campo Formio was arranged, by 
the terms of which Austria ceded her Belgian provinces to the 
French Republic, receiving as an offset the Venetian dominions, 
save the Ionian Islands, which were annexed to the French Re¬ 
public. Bonaparte was already dazzled by the vision of a French 
empire in the Orient. The Grecian isles were to constitute a 
link in the chain which should bind France to her prospective 
Eastern dependencies. 

With the treaty arranged, Bonaparte soon set out for Paris, 
where was accorded him a triumph and ovation such as Europe 
had not seen since the days of the old Roman conquerors. 

780. Bonaparte’s Campaign in Egypt ( 1798 - 1799 ). The Direc¬ 
tors had received Bonaparte with apparent enthusiasm; but at 
this very moment they were disquieted by fears lest their gen¬ 
eral’s ambition might lead him to play the part of a second Caesar. 
They resolved to engage him in an enterprise which would take 


540 


THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 


[§ 781 


him out of France. This undertaking was an attack upon Eng¬ 
land, which they were then meditating. Bonaparte opposed the 
plan of a descent upon the island as impracticable, but proposed 
the conquest of Egypt. This would enable France to control the 
trade of the East and cut England off from her East India pos¬ 
sessions. The Directors assented to the plan, and with feelings of 
relief saw Bonaparte embark from the port of Toulon to carry 
out the enterprise. 

Evading the vigilance of the British fleet that was patrolling the 
Mediterranean, Bonaparte landed in Egypt. Within sight of the 
Pyramids the French army was checked in its march by a deter¬ 
mined stand of the renowned Mameluke cavalry. The battle that 
followed is known in history as the " battle of the Pyramids.’' 
Bonaparte gained a victory that opened the way for his advance 
to Cairo. He had barely entered that city before the startling 
intelligence was borne to him that his fleet had been destroyed 
at the mouth of the Nile by the British admiral Nelson. 

In the spring of 1799 the Ottoman Porte having sent a force 
to retake Egypt, Bonaparte led his army into Syria to fight 
the Turks there. He finally invested Acre. The Turks were 
assisted in the defense of this place by the distinguished British 
commodore, Sir Sidney Smith. All Bonaparte’s efforts to carry the 
place by storm were in vain. "I missed my destiny at Acre,” 
said Bonaparte afterwards. With the ports of Syria secured he 
might have imitated Alexander and led his soldiers to the foot of 
the Himalayas. Bitterly disappointed, Bonaparte abandoned the 
siege of Acre and led his army back into Egypt. 

781. Establishment of the Tiberine, the Helvetic, and the 
Parthenopean Republics (1798-1799). We must turn now to 
view affairs in Europe. The year 1798 was a favorable one for 
the republican cause represented by the Revolution. During that 
year and the opening month of the following one the French 
set up three new republics. First, they incited an insurrection at 
Rome, made a prisoner of the Pope, and proclaimed the Roman 
or Tiberine Republic. Then, intervening in a revolution in Swit¬ 
zerland, they invaded the Swiss cantons and united them into a 


§ 782] 


THE REACTION 


54i 


commonwealth under the name of the Helvetic Republic. A little 
later the French troops drove the king of Naples out of Italy 
to Sicily and transformed his peninsular domains into the Parthe- 
nopean Republic. Thus were three new republics added to the 
commonwealths which the Revolution had previously created. 

782. The Reaction; Bonaparte overthrows the Directory 
(18th and 19th Brumaire, 1799). Much of this work was 
quickly undone. Encouraged by the victory of Nelson over the 
French fleet in the battle of the Nile, and alarmed at the aggres¬ 
sions of the government of the Directory, the leading powers of 
Europe, now including the Tsar of Russia, who was incensed 
against the French especially for their intrusion into the Orient, 
which the Russian rulers had ever regarded as their own particular 
sphere of influence, had formed a new coalition against France. 

The war began early in 1799 and was waged at one and the 
same time in Italy, in Switzerland, and in Holland., In the south 
the campaign was extremely disastrous to the French. They were 
driven out of Italy and were barely able to keep the allies off 
the soil of France. The Cisalpine, Tiberine, and Parthenopean 
republics were abolished. 

These reverses suffered by the French armies in Italy, though 
in other quarters they had been successful, caused the Direc¬ 
tory to fall into great disfavor. They were charged with having 
through jealousy exiled Bonaparte, the only man who could save 
the Republic. Confusion and division prevailed everywhere. 

News of the desperate state of affairs at home reached Bona¬ 
parte in Egypt, just after his return from Syria. He instantly 
formed a bold resolve. Confiding the command of the army in 
Egypt to Kleber, he set sail for France, disclosing his designs in 
the significant words, "The reign of the lawyers is over.” 

Bonaparte was welcomed in France with the wildest enthusi¬ 
asm. A great majority of the people felt instinctively that the 
emergency demanded a dictator. Some of the Directors joined 
with Napoleon in a plot to overthrow the government. Meeting 
with opposition in the Council of Five Hundred, Napoleon with 
a body of grenadiers drove the deputies from their chamber. 


542 


THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 


[§ 782 


The French Revolution had at last brought forth its Cromwell. 
Napoleon was master of France. The first French Republic was 
at an end, and what is distinctively called the French Revolution 
was over. Now commences the history of the Consulate and the 
First Empire,— the story of that surprising career the sun of 
which rose so brightly at Austerlitz and set forever at Waterloo. 


References. For the antecedents and causes of the Revolution: Taine, 
H. A., The Ancient Regime , and Tocqueville, Alexis de, The Old Regime 
and the Revolution. Buckle, H. T., History of Civilization in E?igland, vol. i, 
chaps, xii-xiv (gives an unsurpassed presentation of the philosophical and 
literary movement of the eighteenth century). Lowell, E. J., The Eve of the 
Revolution (a series of scholarly and suggestive studies of the various phases 
of French life and thought during the century preceding the calling of the 
States-General). 

Short histories : Bourne, H. E., 'J'he Revolutionary Period in Europe , chaps, 
i-xvi; Stephens, H. Morse, Revolutionary Europe, iy 8 g-j 8 ig, chaps, i-vi. 
Other excellent short accounts are Morris’, Mallet’s, Mathews’, and 
Mignet’s. 

Extended histories: Stephens, H. Morse, A History of the French Revolu¬ 
tion, 2 vols.; Taine, H. A., The Trench Revolution , 3 vols.; The Cambridge 
Modern History, vol. viii; and Carlyle, T., The French Revolution. (The 
last is Carlyle’s masterpiece; "a prose epic” and "pictures in the French 
Revolution ” are good characterizations of it.) 

Biographies: Morley, J., Rousseau, 2 vols., and Voltaire-, WiLLERT, P. F., 
Mirabeau ; Lamartine, A., Histoiy 0/ the Girondists , 3 vols.; Tarbell, I. M., 
Madame Roland. 


CHAPTER LXVII 

THE CONSULATE AND THE NAPOLEONIC EMPIRE 

(1799-1815) 

I. THE CONSULATE ( 1799 - 1804 ) 

783. The Veiled Military Dictatorship. After the overthrow 
of the government of the Directory, a new constitution — the 
fourth since the year 1789—was prepared and, having been sub¬ 
mitted to the approval of .the people, was accepted by a vote of 
over three millions to less than two thousand. This new instru¬ 
ment vested the executive power in three Consuls, nominated for 
a term of ten years, the first of whom really exercised all the 
authority of the board, the remaining two members being simply 
his counselors. Bonaparte, of course, became the First Consul. 

The other functions of the government were carried on by a 
Council of State, a Tribunate, a Legislature, and a Senate. But 
the members of all these bodies were appointed either directly 
or indirectly by the Consuls, so that the entire government was 
actually in their hands, or rather in the hands of the First Con¬ 
sul. France was still called a republic, but it was such a republic 
as Rome was under Augustus. The republican names and forms 
merely veiled a .government as absolute and personal as that of 
Louis XIV,— in a word, a military dictatorship. 

784. Wars of the First Consul. Bonaparte inherited from the 
Directory war with Austria and England. Offers of peace to both 
having been rejected, Bonaparte mustered his armies. Decisive 
defeats of the Austrians upon the renowned field of Marengo, in 
Italy, and at Hohenlinden, in Bavaria, constrained Emperor 
Francis II to sign a treaty of peace at Luneville (1801). The 
most important part of the treaty was that which provided for the 
reconstruction of the Germanic body. But as this reorganization 

543 


544 


THE CONSULATE 


[§ 785 


of Central Europe was not completed until after the battle of 
Austerlitz, we shall defer explanation of it until we reach that 
important event (sect. 792). The year following the peace between 
France and Austria, England signed the Peace of Amiens. 

785 . Bonaparte as an Enlightened Despot. Peace with Aus¬ 
tria and England left Bonaparte free to devote his amazing ener¬ 
gies to the reform and 
improvement of the inter¬ 
nal affairs of France. It 
was his work here which 
constitutes his true title 
to fame. We shall best 
understand Bonaparte in 
his role as a reformer, and 
best determine his place 
in history, if we regard 
him as the successor of 
the Benevolent Despots of 
the eighteenth century. His 
mission was to carry on 
and perfect their work and 
to consummate the re¬ 
forms and to make secure 
the social results of the 
Revolution. 

To close the wounds inflicted upon France by the Revolution 
was one of the first aims of Bonaparte. The deepest wound had 
been given by the Civil Constitution of the Clergy (sect. 749). 
This had divided the nation into two bitterly opposed parties. 
Moreover, since 1794 the government had ceased to pay the 
salaries of the priests, with the result that many communes were 
wholly without regular religious services. To remedy this state 
of things Bonaparte entered into an agreement, known as the 
Concordat, with the Holy See (1801). The First Consul was to 
nominate archbishops and bishops impartially from both parties, 
that is, the party which had acquiesced in the revolutionary 



Fig. 133. Napoleon Bonaparte. (After 
the medallion, by Isabey ) 

































































































































































































§ 785 ] BONAPARTE AS AN ENLIGHTENED DESPOT 545 

programme and the party which had opposed it, and the state was 
again to assume as a public charge the salaries of the clergy. 1 
The Pope was to be recognized as the head of the French Church 
and was to confirm in their ecclesiastical offices the persons 
nominated by the government. The Concordat closed the great 
breach which the Revolution had opened in the French Church, 
and attached the Catholics to the government of the First Consul, 
who was acclaimed as "the new Constantine.” 

Not less successful was Bonaparte in his efforts to restore the 
material interests of the country, which had suffered neglect during 
the Revolution. He repaired and constructed roads and bridges, 
dug canals, and improved the seaports of the country. The great 
military roads which he caused to be constructed over the Alps 
are marvels of engineering skill, and served as a chief means of 
communication between Italy and the north of Europe until the 
mountains were pierced with tunnels. 

The public buildings and monuments of France had fallen 
into decay. Bonaparte restored/ the old and built new ones. 
He embellished Paris and the other chief cities of France with 
public edifices and memorial monuments of every description. 
Many of these works are the pride of France today. 

But the most noteworthy of the works of Napoleon Bonaparte, 
either as First Consul or as Emperor, was the compilation of 
what is known as the "Civil Code,” or "Code Napoleon,” which 
has caused his name to be joined with that of Justinian as one of 
the great lawgivers of history. Almost immediately after coming 
to power he appointed a commission of five eminent jurists to take 
up this work, which had been begun by the Constituent Assembly 
and the Convention. These experts were busied with the labor 
for about four years. 

The Code was made up of the ancient customs of France, of 
Roman law maxims, and particularly of the principles and legisla¬ 
tion of the Revolution. This great mass of material was condensed 

1 The salaries of all the French clergy, including Protestant ministers and Jewish 
rabbis, were paid out of the public treasury. This arrangement held good down to the 
year 1905, when the Concordat was annulled with a complete separation of Chuich and 

State (sect. 822). 


546 


THE NAPOLEONIC EMPIRE 


[§ 7S6 


and revised in some such way as the jurists of the Emperor 
Justinian handled the accumulated mass of law material—old 
and new, pagan and Christian—of their time, in the creation of 
the celebrated Corpus Juris Civilis (sect. 346). 

The influence of the Civil Code upon the development of 
liberalism in western Europe w T as most salutary. It secured 
the work of the Revolution. It swept away the old oppressive 
customs and laws that were an inheritance from the feudal ages. 
It recognized the equality of noble and peasant in the eye of the 
law. Either its principles or its direct provisions were soon intro¬ 
duced into half of the countries of Europe. 

786. Bonaparte becomes Consul for Life ( 1802 ). Through 
the Senate and the Council of State it was now proposed to the 
French people, that Bonaparte should be made Consul for life, 
in order that his magnificent projects of restoration and reform 
might be pursued without interruption. With almost a single 
voice the people approved the proposal. Thus did the First 
Consul move a step nearer the imperial throne. 


II. THE NAPOLEONIC EMPIRE; THE WAR OF 
LIBERATION ( 1804 - 1815 ) 

787. Napoleon proclaimed Emperor ( 1804 ). A conspiracy 
against the life of the First Consul and the increased activity of 
his enemies resulted in a movement to increase his power and to 
insure his safety and the stability of his government by placing 
him upon a throne. Napoleon, while seeming to resign himself 
to the popular movement, really incited and directed it. A decree 
of the Senate conferring upon him the title of Emperor of the 
French, having been submitted to the people for approval, was 
ratified by an almost unanimous vote. The coronation took place 
in the cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris, Pope Pius VII having 
been induced to come from Rome to take part in the ceremonies. 1 

1 From this time on Bonaparte, imitating a royal custom, used only his first name, 
Napoleon, and it is by this name, which was destined to fill such a great place in history, 
chat we shall hereafter know him. 


§ 7 SS] REPUBLICS CHANGED INTO KINGDOMS 547 

788. The Republics created by the Revolution are changed 
into Kingdoms. Within two years from the time that the French 
government assumed an imperial form, three of the surrounding 
republics raised up by the revolutionary ideas and armies of 
France had been transformed into states with monarchical gov¬ 
ernments dependent upon the French empire or had been incor¬ 
porated with France. In a word, all these states now became 
practically the fiefs of Napoleon’s empire, the provinces and 
dependencies of a new Rome. 

Thus the Cisalpine or Italian Republic was changed into a 
kingdom, and Napoleon, crowning himself at Milan with the 
"Iron Crown” of the Lombards, 1 assumed the government of the 
state, with the title of King of Italy. A little later in the same 
year the Emperor incorporated the Ligurian Republic with the 
French empire. Then he remodeled the Batavian Republic into 
the kingdom of Holland and conferred the crown upon his favorite 
brother Louis. 

Thus was the political work of the Revolution undone. Political 
liberty was taken away. "I set it aside,” said Napoleon, "when 
it obstructed my road.” Civil equality was left. 

789. The Empire and the Old Monarchies. It will not be 
supposed that the states of Europe were looking quietly on while 
all this was being done. The colossal power which the soldier of 
fortune was building up was a menace to all Europe. The Empire 
was more dreaded than the Republic, because it was a military 
despotism, and as such was an instrument of irresistible power in 
the hands of a man of such genius and resources as Napoleon. 
Coalition after coalition, of which England was "the paymaster,” 
was formed by the sovereigns of Europe against the " usurper,” 
with the object at first of pushing France back within her original 
boundaries, and then later of deposing Napoleon as the disturber 
of the peace of Europe and the oppressor of the nations. From 
the coronation of Napoleon in 1804 until his final downfall in 
1815 the tremendous struggle went on almost without intermission. 

1 Napoleon here imitated Charlemagne. He said, " I am Charlemagne, for like 
Charlemagne I unite the crowns of France and Lombardy.” Compare sect. 402. 


THE NAPOLEONIC EMPIRE 


[§ 790 


548 

It was the war of the giants. Europe was shaken from end to 
end with such armies as the world had not seen since the days 
of Xerxes. Napoleon performed the miracles of genius. His 
brilliant achievements still dazzle, while they amaze, the world. 

To relate in detail Napoleon’s campaigns from Austerlitz to 
Waterloo would require the space of volumes. We shall simply 
indicate in a few brief paragraphs the successive steps by which 
he mounted to the highest pitch of power and fame, and then 
trace hurriedly the decline and fall of his astonishing fortunes. 

790. Napoleon’s Preparations for invading England; the 
Sale of Louisiana to the United States; the Camp at Boulogne 
( 1803 - 1805 ). Even before Napoleon’s coronation, war had been 
renewed between France and England. One of Napoleon’s first 
acts of preparation for this struggle was the sale (in 1803) to 
the United States, for fifteen million dollars, of the territory of 
Louisiana, which he had recently acquired from Spain. He 
was impelled to do this because his inferiority at sea made it 
impossible for him to defend such remote possessions. 

The sale and transfer of this immense region of boundless 
resources was one of the most important transactions in history. 
Napoleon seems to have realized its significance for the develop¬ 
ment of the great American republic. "I have given England a 
rival,” he said, "which sooner or later will humble her pride.” 

As early as 1803 Napoleon had begun to mass a great army at 
Boulogne, on the English Channel, and to build an immense 
number of flat-bottomed boats preparatory to an invasion of 
England. "Cartnage must be destroyed,” was the menacing and 
persistent cry of the French press. "Masters of the Channel for 
six hours,” said Napoleon, "and we are masters of the world.” 
To arouse patriotic enthusiasm by historic memories, he caused the 
Bayeux Tapestry, the famous memorial of the Norman conquest 
of England, to be brought to Paris. 

Napoleon’s menacing preparations produced throughout Eng¬ 
land an alarm unequaled by anything the British people had expe¬ 
rienced since the days of the Spanish Armada. The younger Pitt, 
at this time head of the British government, was untiring in 


§ 791] 


CAMPAIGN AGAINST AUSTRIA 


549 


fostering a new coalition of the powers against France. Early in 
the year 1805 England and Russia formed an alliance which was 
intended to constitute the nucleus of a general European league. 
Austria and other states soon joined the coalition. 

791. Campaign against Austria: Austerlitz (isos). Intelli¬ 
gence reaching Napoleon that both the Austrian and the Russian 
armies were on the move, he suddenly broke up the camp at Bou¬ 
logne, flung his Grand Army, as it was called, across the Rhine, 
outmaneuvered and captured a great Austrian army at Ulm, 
and then marched in triumph through Vienna to the field of 
Austerlitz beyond, where he gained one of his most memorable 
victories over the combined armies of Austria and Russia, number¬ 
ing more than eighty thousand men. Austria was now shorn of 
large tracts of her dominions, including Venetia, which Napoleon 
added to the kingdom of Italy. 

792. The Reorganization of Germany; End of the Holy 
Roman Empire (isos). That reconstruction of the Germanic 
body which Napoleon had begun after the battles of Marengo and 
Hohenlinden (sect. 784) was now in its large outlines completed. 
Napoleon ultimately reduced the three hundred and more states 
comprising the Germanic system to about forty. It was the 
ecclesiastical states, the free imperial cities, and the petty states 
of the minor princes which suffered extinction, their lands being 
bestowed upon the princes of the states selected for survival. 
Among the rulers especially favored at this time were the Elector 
of Bavaria and the Duke of Wurtemberg, both of whom were made 
kings and given enough territory to enable them to maintain 
becomingly this new dignity. Marriage alliances bound them to 

the family of Napoleon. 

These favored states, together with others,—sixteen in all,— 
now declared themselves independent of the old Holy Roman 
Empire, and were formed into a league called the Confedera¬ 
tion of the Rhine, with Napoleon as Protector. Emperor Francis 
II, recognizing that his office was virtually abolished, now laid 
down the imperial crown, and henceforth used as his highest title 
Francis /, Emperor oj Austria. 



550 


THE NAPOLEONIC EMPIRE 


[§ 793 


Thus did the Holy Roman Empire come to an end, after 
having maintained an existence, since its revival under Charle¬ 
magne, of almost exactly one thousand years. Reckoning from its 
establishment by Caesar Augustus, it had lasted over eighteen 
hundred years, thus being one of the longest-lived of human 
institutions,—if mere existence may be reckoned as life. 

793. Trafalgar (isos). Napoleon’s brilliant victories in Ger¬ 
many were clouded by an irretrievable disaster to his fleet, which 
occurred on the day following the surrender of the Austrians at 
Ulm. Lord Nelson having met, near Cape Trafalgar on the coast 
of Spain, the combined French and Spanish fleets,—Spain was 
at this time Napoleon’s ally,— almost completely destroyed the 
combined armaments. The gallant British admiral fell at the 
moment of victory. 

This decisive battle gave England the control of the sea and 
relieved her from all danger of a French invasion. Even the 
"wet ditch,” as Napoleon was wont contemptuously to call the 
English Channel, was henceforth an impassable gulf to his ambi¬ 
tion. He might rule the Continent, but the sovereignty of the 
ocean and its islands was denied him. 

794. Campaign against Prussia: Jena and Auerstadt (i 806 ). 
Prussia was the next state after Austria to feel the weight of 
Napoleon’s hand. King Frederick William III, goaded by insuffer¬ 
able insult, imprudently threw down the gauntlet to the victor of 
Austerlitz. Moving with his usual swiftness, Napoleon over¬ 
whelmed the Prussian armies in the battles of Jena and Auerstadt, 
which were both fought on the same day. The greater part 
of Prussia was now quickly overrun by the French. The capital, 
Berlin, was entered by them in triumph. The sword of the great 
Frederick, the famous car of victory over the Brandenburg Gate, 
together with many treasures stolen from the museums and art 
galleries of the city, were carried as trophies to Paris. 

795. Campaigns against the Russians: Eylau and Friedland 
(i807). The Russian army, which the Tsar Alexander had sent 
to the aid of Frederick William, was still in the field against 
Napoleon in the Prussian territories east of the Vistula. 


§ 796] 


THE TREATY OF TILSIT 


55i 


Early in the year 1807 Napoleon attacked, on a stormy winter 
day, the Russian forces at Eylau. The battle was sanguinary and 
indecisive, each army, it is estimated, leaving over thirty thousand 
dead and wounded on the snow. During the summer campaign 
of the same year Napoleon again engaged the Russians in the 
terrible battle of Friedland and completely overwhelmed them. 
The Tsar was constrained to sue for peace. 

796. The Treaty of Tilsit ( 1807 ); the Partition of the 
World. Napoleon arranged a series of interviews with the Tsar 
Alexander at the Prussian town of Tilsit. The first of the meet¬ 
ings took place on a raft moored midway in the Niemen, the 
frontier river of Russia. 

These interviews between Napoleon and Alexander mark one 
of the most dramatic situations in European history. The old 
order of things had been destroyed and a new order ^of things was 
being projected. The subject of converse of the two emperors 
was nothing less than the partition of the world between them. 
"Napoleon spread before the eyes of the Emperor of Russia his 
favorite conception of the reestablishment of the old empires of 
the East and the West. They were to be faithful allies. France 
was to be the supreme power over the Latin races and in the 
center of Europe; Russia was to represent the Greek Empire 
and to expand into Asia. . . . The one enemy to be feared and 
crushed, according to Napoleon, was England.” 1 

Thus the modern world was to be made over on the old Romano- 
Byzantine model. But there were difficulties in remaking the map 
of central Europe. Particularly in regard to the treatment and 
disposition of the old Polish territories and Prussia did the interests 
of the two emperors clash. It would have been to the advantage 
of Napoleon to restore the dismembered Polish nation, but he 
could not do this without alienating the Tsar Alexander; so he 
merely organized the greater part of Prussian Poland into what 
he named the Grand Duchy of Warsaw, and bestowed it upon 
the vassal king of Saxony. 2 


1 Stephens, Revolutionary Europe, 178Q-181J;, p. 249. 

2 Napoleon had made the Elector of Saxony a king just alter the battle of Jena. 


552 


THE NAPOLEONIC EMPIRE 


[§ 797 


Thus were the hopes of the Polish patriots sacrificed upon the 
altar of Napoleon’s imperial ambitions. Here was a nation of 
fifteen million souls which had been partitioned by brigand kings 
like a herd of cattle. The patriot Poles, who with pathetic devo¬ 
tion had followed Napoleon to every battlefield of the Consulate 
and the Empire, looked to him to unite and restore their nation. 
He had allowed them to hope that he would do so. Never were 
hopes more cruelly disappointed. Had Napoleon here acted the 
part of a real liberator, he would have undone one of the greatest 
wrongs of which history knows, and in the gratitude of a redeemed 
and valiant nation would have raised for himself an enduring 
monument as one of the greatest benefactors of humanity. 

As to Prussia, Napoleon was minded to erase it from the map 
of Europe. The intercession of the Tsar Alexander, however, 
saved the state from total extinction. 1 But neither the Tsar’s medi¬ 
ation in behalf of his ally, Frederick William III, nor the per¬ 
sonal entreaties of the beautiful and patriotic Queen Louisa, who 
humiliated herself by appearing as a suppliant before Napoleon 
at Tilsit, availed to save the monarchy from dismemberment 
and the deepest abasement. Besides stripping Prussia of her 
Polish provinces Napoleon took away from her all her territories 
west of the Elbe, out of which, in connection with some other 
lands, he made the new kingdom of Westphalia and gave it to his 
brother Jerome. This kingdom, into the making of which went 
twenty-four principalities and free cities, Napoleon now added to 
the Confederation of the Rhine. Prussia thus lost fully one half 
of her territory. What was left became virtually a province of 
Napoleon’s empire. 

797. The Continental Blockade; the Berlin and Milan 
Decrees ( 1806 - 1807 ). After the Peace of Tilsit, England was 
Napoleon’s sole remaining enemy. The means which he employed 
to compass the ruin of this formidable and obstinate foe, the pay¬ 
master of the coalitions which he was having constantly to face, 

1 Alexander wished to maintain Prussia as a barrier state between Russia and Napo¬ 
leon’s empire. He viewed with apprehension the advance of Napoleon’s frontier toward 
the western boundary of his own domains. 


§ 798] BEGINNING OF THE PENINSULAR WARS 553 

affords the key to the history of the great years from 1807 to 
his final downfall at Waterloo in 1815. This means was what is 
known as the Continental Blockade or Continental System. We 
have seen how the destruction of Napoleon’s fleet at Trafalgar 
dashed all his hopes of ever making a descent upon the British 
shores (sect. 793). Unable to reach his enemy directly with his 
arms, he resolved to strike her through her commerce. By two 
celebrated edicts, called from the cities whence they were issued 
the Berlin and Milan decrees, he closed all the ports of the Con¬ 
tinent against British ships and forbade any of the European 
nations from holding any intercourse with Great Britain. The 
policy thus adopted by Napoleon to bring England to terms by 
ruining her trade was a suicidal one and resulted finally in the 
ruin of his own empire. 

798. Beginning of the Peninsular Wars ( 1807 ). One of the 
first consequences of Napoleon’s Continental Blockade was to 
bring him into conflict with Portugal. The prince regent of that 
country refusing to comply with all his demands respecting Brit¬ 
ish trade and property, Napoleon sent one of his marshals to 
take possession of the kingdom. The entire royal family, accom¬ 
panied by many of the nobility, fled to Brazil. Portugal was left 
in the hands of Napoleon. 

799. Napoleon places his Brother Joseph upon the Spanish 
Throne (isos); the Spanish Uprising. Spain was next appro¬ 
priated. Arrogantly interfering in the affairs of that country,— 
the government it must be said was desperately incompetent and 
corrupt,—Napoleon induced the weak-minded Bourbon king, 
Charles IV, to resign to him as "his dearly beloved friend and 
ally” his crown, which Napoleon at once bestowed upon his own 
brother Joseph. The throne of Naples, which Joseph had been 
occupying, 1 was transferred to Murat, Napoleon’s brother-in-law. 
Thus did this audacious man make and unmake kings, and give 
away thrones and kingdoms. 

But the high-spirited Spaniards were not the people to submit 
tamely to such an indignity. The entire nation from the Pyrenees 

1 Napoleon had dethroned the Bourbons in Naples in 1806. 


554 


THE NAPOLEONIC EMPIRE 


[§ 800 


to the Strait of Gibraltar flew to arms. Portugal also rose, and 
England sent to her aid a force under Sir Arthur Wellesley, after¬ 
wards Duke of Wellington and the hero of Waterloo.. The French 
armies were soon driven out of Portugal, and pushed beyond the 
Ebro in Spain. Joseph fled in dismay from his throne, and Napo¬ 
leon found it necessary to take the field himself, in order to restore 
the prestige of the French arms. He entered the peninsula at the 
head of a great army, and reseated his brother upon the Spanish 
throne. Threatening tidings from another quarter of Europe now 
caused Napoleon to hasten back to Paris. 

800. Napoleon’s Third Campaign against Austria ( 1809 ). 
Taking advantage of Napoleon’^ troubles in the Iberian penin¬ 
sula, Emperor Francis I of Austria had put his army on a war 
footing, and made ready to throw down the gage of battle. The 
war opened in the spring of 1809. At the end of a short cam¬ 
paign, the most noted engagements of which were the hard-fought 
battles of Aspern (Essling) and Wagram, Austria was again at 
Napoleon’s feet. She was now still further dismembered. Among 
other lands taken from her was a long strip of shore land on the 
Adriatic, which, under the name of the Illyrian Provinces, Napo¬ 
leon added to the French empire. 

801. Union of the Papal States with Napoleon’s Empire 
( 1809 ). Napoleon’s Continental System now brought him into 
trouble with the Papacy. Pope Pius VII refused to enforce the 
blockade against England and further presumed to disregard other 
commands of Napoleon. Thereupon Napoleon declared that the 
Pope "was no longer a secular prince,”, and took possession of 
his domains. Pope Pius straightway excommunicated the Em¬ 
peror, who thereupon arrested him, and for three years held him 
a state prisoner. 

802 . Napoleon’s Second Marriage (i8io). Soon after his tri¬ 
umph over the Emperor Francis, Napoleon divorced his wife 
Josephine in order to form a new alliance with the Archduchess 
Marie Louise of Austria. Josephine bowed meekly to the will of 
her lord and went into sorrowful exile from his palace. Napoleon’s 
object in this matter was to cover the reproach of his plebeian 


§ 803] 


NEW ANNEXATIONS 


555 


birth by an alliance with one of the ancient royal families of 
Europe, and to secure the perpetuity of his government by leav¬ 
ing an heir to be the inheritor of his throne and fortunes. 

The ambition of Napoleon to found a dynasty seemed realized 
when, the year following his marriage with the archduchess, a son 
was born to them, who was given the title of King of Rome. His 
enemies could now no longer, as he reproached them with doing, 
make appointments at his grave. He had now something more 
than "a life interest” in France. The succession was assured. 

803. Holland and North German Coast Lands annexed to 
Napoleon’s Empire (isio). During this year of his second mar¬ 
riage Napoleon made two fresh territorial additions to his empire. 

Louis Bonaparte,—king of Holland, it will be recalled,—dis¬ 
approving of his brother’s Continental System, which was ruin¬ 
ing the trade of the Dutch, abdicated the crown Thereupon 
Napoleon incorporated Holland with the French empire. A little 
later he also annexed to his empire all the German coast land from 
Holland to Liibeck in order to be able to close the important 
ports here against British trade. 

804. Napoleon’s Empire at its Greatest Extent (lsn). In 
these additions the Napoleonic empire received its last enlarge¬ 
ment. Napoleon was now, in outward seeming, at the height of 
his marvelous fortunes. Marengo, Austerlitz, Jena, Friedland, 
and Wagram were the successive steps by which he had mounted 
to the nftost dizzy heights of military power and glory. 

The empire which this soldier of fortune had built up stretched 
from Liibeck to beyond Rome, embracing France proper, the 
Netherlands, part of western and northwestern Germany, all 
western Italy as far south as the kingdom of Naples, together 
with the Illyrian Provinces and the Ionian Islands. 

On all sides were allied, vassal, or dependent states. Several of 
the ancient thrones of Europe were occupied by Napoleon’s rela¬ 
tives or his favorite marshals. He himself was head of the king¬ 
dom of Italy, Protector of the Confederation of the Rhine, and 
Mediator of Switzerland. Austria and Prussia were completely 
subject to his will. Russia and Denmark were his allies. 


556 


THE NAPOLEONIC EMPIRE 


[§805 


Such were the relations of the once great powers and independ¬ 
ent states of Europe to "the Corsican adventurer.” Not since the 
time of the Caesars had one man’s will swayed so much of the 
civilized world. 

805. Elements of Weakness in the Empire. But, splendid and 
imposing as at this moment appeared the external affairs of 
Napoleon, the sim of his fortunes, which had risen so brightly at 
Austerlitz, had already passed its meridian. There were many 
things just now contributing to the weakness of Napoleon’s em¬ 
pire and foreboding its speedy dissolution. Founded and upheld 
by the genius of this single man, it depended solely upon his life 
and fortunes. 

Again, Napoleon’s Continental System, through the suffering 
and loss it inflicted particularly upon the maritime countries of 
Europe, had caused murmurs of discontent all around the cir¬ 
cumference of the continent. 

Still again, the conscriptions of the Emperor had drained France 
of men, and her armies were now recruited by mere boys, who 
were utterly unfit to bear the burden and fatigue of Napoleon’s 
rapid campaigns. The heavy taxes, also, which were necessary 
to meet the expenses of Napoleon’s wars, and to carry on the 
splendid public works upon which he was constantly engaged, 
produced great suffering and discontent throughout the empire. 

Furthermore, Napoleon’s harsh and unjust treatment of Pope 
Pius VII had alienated the Catholic clergy and created a resentful 
feeling among pious Catholics everywhere. 

t 

At the same time the crowd of deposed princes and dispossessed 
aristocrats in those states which Napoleon had reconstructed, and 
in which he had set up the new code of equal rights, were natu¬ 
rally resentful, and were ever watching an opportunity to regain 
their lost power and privileges. 

Even the large class who at first welcomed Napoleon as the 
representative of the French ideas of equality and liberty, and 
applauded while he overturned ancient thrones and stripped of 
their privileges ancient aristocracies,—even many of tljese early 
adherents had been turned into bitter enemies by his adoption of 














































§ 806 ] THE RISING TIDE OF NATIONALISM 


557 


imperial manners and the formation of a court, and especially by 
his setting aside his first wife, Josephine, and forming a marriage 
alliance with one of the old hated royal houses of Europe. 
r 806 . The New Force destined to destroy Napoleon’s Empire: 
the Nations. But the active force which was to overwhelm Napo¬ 
leon’s empire and to free Europe from his tyranny was the senti¬ 
ment of national patriotism which was being aroused in the 
dismembered and vassal states, and in those whose independence 
was imperiled. The Empire threatened to become the tomb of the 
nations. In the face of this danger national patriotism was being 
everywhere awakened. We have witnessed the popular uprising 
in Spain; we shall now witness a similar movement in Germany 
and in Russia. 

807 . The Regeneration of Prussia. It was in Prussia that 
this patriotic movement found most passionate expression. After 
the crushing defeat at Jena, Prussia had been subjected by Napo¬ 
leon to every indignity and forced to drain to the dregs the cup of 
humiliation. This had for a result the calling into life among the 
Germans of the dormant sentiment of national patriotism. The 
growth of the new feeling was stimulated and directed by vari¬ 
ous agencies. Among these were the stirring patriotic songs 
of the poets Korner, Arndt, and others, which kindled in thou¬ 
sands of German hearts an unwonted fervor of enthusiasm for 
the Fatherland. 

Education became another of the means of national quickening 
and regeneration. In the year 1808 the philosopher Fichte de¬ 
livered before Berlin audiences a remarkable course of lectures 
entitled "Addresses to the German Nation.” No such appeal 
had been made to the German mind and heart since Luther 
published his "Address to the German Nobility” (sect. 555). 
Fichte’s idea was that public education was the only hopeful 
agency for the moral and political regeneration of the German 
nation. The German youth must be taught the duty of un¬ 
selfish devotion to the public welfare and must be made to realize 
the joy of making sacrifices for the Fatherland. Thus was a 
wholly new spirit breathed into German education and German 


558 


THE NAPOLEONIC EMPIRE 


[§807 


philosophy. 1 Thousands of German youths were stirred by a senti¬ 
ment they had never felt before,— ardent love for the German 
name and the German land. 

At the same time that the poets, philosophers, and teachers 
were creating by their appeals and methods a new spirit in 
Prussian society, the masses of the people were being awakened 
by the social and economic reforms carried out by the eminent 
patriot statesmen Baron vom Stein and Prince von Hardenberg. 

Two thirds of the population of Prussia were at this time serfs. 
Now, Stein’s controlling idea was that the strength of a state 
depends upon the patriotism of the people; but his insight re¬ 
vealed to him the truth that "patriots cannot be made out of 
serfs.” Hence his policy of enfranchisement. 

By a celebrated Edict of Emancipation serfdom was abolished. 
This decree, by reason of its far-reaching consequences, deserves 
a place along with the Emancipation Proclamation of Abraham 
Lincoln and the Edict of the Emperor Alexander II which liber¬ 
ated the Russian serfs. 

Along with serfdom, class privileges and distinctions, which 
had divided the population of Prussia into classes separated by 
almost impassable lines, were now swept away. The towns were 
given a measure of local self-government, which was to prepare 
the way for the representatives of the people to participate in the 
national government. 

While Stein and Hardenberg were effecting these reforms in 
the civil realm, Scharnhorst, the Minister of War, was reorganiz¬ 
ing the army on the model of that of France. The old army, 
which had gone to pieces so disgracefully on the field of Jena, 
was made up of conscripted peasants, officered by incompetent and 


1 Hitherto the greatest thinkers and writers of Germany had insisted that the indi¬ 
vidual seek culture simply for his own sake. The State was the thing of last concern 
with the great poet Goethe. National patriotism he regarded as a narrow sentiment 
unworthy of a great mind. The poet Lessing declared patriotism to be " a heroic weak¬ 
ness,” and love of fatherland a sentiment which he had never felt. Equally free from 
this " heroic weakness,” as related to a German fatherland, was the philosopher Hegel. 
The idea with all these great poets and philosophers was that Cosmopolitanism is a 
nobler thing than Nationalism — that men should regard themselves not as citizens of 
a paltry state but as citizens of the world. 


§ 808] 


NAPOLEON’S INVASION OF RUSSIA 


559 


insolent nobles. Flogging was the punishment for even the most 
trivial offenses. The new army was an army of self-respecting 
citizens, a truly national army. 

The effect of these reforms upon the spirit of the people was 
magical. They effected the political and moral regeneration of 
Prussia. Prussia regenerated became the leader of the German 
nation in the memorable War of Liberation, which we are now 
approaching. 

808. Napoleon’s Invasion of Russia (1812-1S13). The signal 
for the general uprising of Germany and the rest of Europe was 
the terrible misfortune which befell Napoleon in his invasion of 
Russia. Various circumstances had concurred to weaken the 
friendship and break the alliance between the Russian Emperor 
and Napoleon; but the main cause of mutual distrust and aliena¬ 
tion was the Continental Blockade. This had inflicted great loss 
upon Russian trade, and the Tsar had finally refused to carry 
out Napoleon’s decrees, and had entered a coalition against France. 

Napoleon resolved to force Russia, as he had the rest of Con¬ 
tinental Europe, to bow to his will. Gathering contingents from 
all his vassal states, he crossed the Russian frontier at the head of 
what was proudly called the Grand Army, numbering upwards 
of four hundred thousand men. After making a single stand at 
Smolensk, the Russian army avoided battle, and as it retreated 
into the interior devastated the country in front of the advancing 
enemy. Finally, at Borodino, seventy miles from Moscow, the 
Russians halted and offered battle to cover the city, but in a 
terribly bloody struggle their resistance was broken and the 
invaders entered the ancient capital in triumph. 

To his astonishment Napoleon found the city practically de¬ 
serted by its inhabitants; and two days after he had established 
himself in the empty palace of the Tsar (the Kremlin), fires, 
started in some unknown way, broke out simultaneously in dif¬ 
ferent quarters of the city. The conflagration raged for five days, 
until the greater part of the city was reduced to ashes. 

Napoleon’s situation was now critical. He had confidently 
expected, from his knowledge of the Emperor Alexander, that 


560 THE NAPOLEONIC EMPIRE [§ 808 

as soon as the French army was in Moscow he would sue for 
peace. But to Napoleon's messages Alexander returned for reply 
that he would not enter into negotiations with him so long as a 
single French soldier stood upon Russian soil. 

In the hope that the Tsar would abandon his heroic resolve, 
Napoleon lingered about the ruined city until the middle of 
October, and then finally gave orders for the return march. This 
delay was a fatal mistake, and resulted in one of the greatest 
tragedies in history. Before the retreating French columns had 



Fig. 134. The Kremlin of Moscow. (From a photograph) 


covered half the distance to the frontier, the terrible Russian win¬ 
ter was upon them. The sufferings of the ill-clad soldiers were 
intense. Thousands were frozen to death. The spot of each 
bivouac was marked by the circle of dead around the watch fires. 
Sometimes in a single night as many as two or three hundred 
perished. Thousands more were slain by the peasants and the 
wild Cossacks, who hovered about the retreating columns and 
harassed them day and night. 

The passage of the river Beresina was attended with appalling 
losses. Soon after the passage of this stream Napoleon, conscious 
that the fate of his empire depended upon his presence in Paris, 
left the remnant of the army in charge of his marshals and hurried 
by post to his capital. 

The loss by death of the French and their allies in this disas¬ 
trous campaign is reckoned at upwards of two hundred and fifty 
thousand men, while that of the Russians is estimated to have 
been almost as large. 


















§ 809] 


THE WAR OF LIBERATION 


56i 


809. The War of Liberation; the Battle of Leipzig, the 
Battle of the Nations” ( 1813 ). Napoleon’s fortunes were buried 
with his Grand Army in the snows of Russia. His woeful losses 
here, taken in connection with his great losses in Spain, encour¬ 
aged the European powers to think that now they could crush 
him. A sixth coalition was formed, embracing Russia, Prussia, 
England, Sweden, and later Austria. 

Napoleon made gigantic efforts to prepare for the final 
struggle. By the spring of 1813 he was at the head of a new 
army, numbering eventually over three hundred thousand men, 
boys we should say, so extremely young were a large number 
of the fresh recruits. Falling upon the allied armies of the Rus¬ 
sians and Prussians, first at Liitzen and then at Bautzen, Napoleon 
gained a decisive victory upon both fields. Austria now appeared 
in the lists, and at Leipzig, in Saxony, Napoleon was-attacked by 
the leagued armies of Europe. So many were the powers repre¬ 
sented upon this renowned field that it is known in history as the 
" Battle of the Nations.” The combat lasted three days. Napo¬ 
leon was defeated and forced to retreat into France. 

The armies of the allies now poured over all the French fron¬ 
tiers. Napoleon’s efforts to roll back the tide of invasion were all 
in vain. Paris surrendered to the allies (1814). As the struggle 
became plainly hopeless, the Emperor’s most trusted officers 
deserted and betrayed him. The French Senate issued a decree 
deposing him and restoring the throne to the Bourbons. Napoleon 
was forced to abdicate and was banished to the little island of 
Elba in the Mediterranean, being permitted to retain his title of 
Emperor and to keep about him a few of his old guardsmen. But 
Elba was a very diminutive empire for one to whom the half of 
Europe had seemed too small, and we shall not be surprised to 
learn that Napoleon was not content with it. 

810. "The Hundred Days” (March 20-June 29, 1815). By 
invitation of the French Senate the brother of Louis XVI now 
assumed the crown with the title of Louis XVIII. With this new 
Bourbon king the allies arranged a treaty, 1 the shifty Talleyrand, 

1 First Treaty of Paris, May 30, 1814. 


562 THE NAPOLEONIC EMPIRE [§ 810 

who had earlier served Napoleon, acting as Louis’ representative. 
This treaty gave France the frontiers she had in 1792. 

In accordance with a promise he had made, Louis gave France 
a constitution. Notwithstanding, he acted very much as though 
his power were unlimited. He styled himself "King of France 
and Navarre by the grace of GodT He always alluded to the year 
in which he began to rule as the nineteenth year of his reign, thus 
affecting to ignore wholly the government of the Republic and 
the Empire. This excited alarm, because it seemed to question 
the validity of all that had been done since the execution of 
Louis XVI. There was widespread dissatisfaction. Some, fear¬ 
ing lest the work of the Revolution would be undone, began to 
desire the return of Napoleon, and the wish was perhaps what 
gave rise to the report which was spread abroad that he would 
come back with the spring violets. 

In the month of March, 1815, as the commissioners of the 
various powers were sitting at Vienna rearranging the landmarks 
and boundaries obliterated by the French inundation, news was 
brought to them that Napoleon had escaped from Elba and was 
in France. At first the members of the Congress were incredu¬ 
lous, regarding the thing as a jest, and were with difficulty con¬ 
vinced of the truth of the report. 

Taking advantage of the general dissatisfaction with the rule 
of the restored Bourbons, Napoleon had resolved upon a bold 
push for the recovery of his crown. Landing with about eight 
hundred guardsmen at one of the southern ports of France, he 
aroused all the country with one of his stirring addresses, and 
then immediately pushed on toward Paris. His journey to the 
capital was one continuous ovation. One regiment after another, 
forgetting their recent oath of loyalty to the Bourbons, hastened 
to join his train. Marshal Ney, sent to arrest the Emperor, 
whom he had promised to bring to Paris in a cage, at the first 
sight of his old commander threw himself into his arms and 
pledged him his sword and his life. Louis XVIII, deserted by his 
army, was left helpless, and, as Napoleon approached the gates 
of Paris, fled from his throne. 


§ 810 ] 


I 


THE HUNDRED DAYS 


563 


Napoleon desired peace with the sovereigns of Europe; but 
they did not think the peace of the continent could be maintained 
so long as he sat upon the French throne. For the seventh and 
last time the allies leagued their armies against "the disturber 
of the peace of Europe.” 

Hoping to overwhelm the armies of the allies by striking them 
one after another before they had time to unite, Napoleon moved 
swiftly into Belgium with an army of one hundred and thirty 
thousand in order to crush there the British under the Duke 
of Wellington and the Prussians under Bliicher. He first fell in 
with and defeated the Prussian army, and then faced the British 
at Waterloo (June 18, 1815). 

The story of Waterloo need not be told,—how all day the 
French broke their columns in vain on the British squares; 
how, at the critical moment toward the close of the day when 
Wellington was wishing for Bliicher or for night, Bliicher with 
a fresh force of thirty thousand Prussians turned the tide of 
battle; and how the famous Old Guard, which knew how to die 
but not how to surrender, 1 made its last charge and left its 
hitherto invincible squares upon the lost field. 

A second time Napoleon was forced to abdicate, 2 and a second 
time Louis XVIII ascended his unstable throne. 3 Napoleon 
made his way to the coast, purposing to take ship for the United 
States; but the way was barred by British watchfulness, and he 
was constrained to surrender to the commander of the British 
warship Bellerophon. "I come, like Themistocles,” he said, "to 
throw myself upon the hospitality of the English people.” 

But no one believed that Napoleon could safely be left at large, 
or that his presence anywhere in Europe, even though he were in 
close confinement, would be consistent with the future security 


1 General Cambronne, the commander of the Guard, when summoned to sunender, 
is said to have returned this reply: " The Guard dies, but never surrenders.” There is 
doubt concerning the origin of the famous phrase. 

2 His abdication was in favor of his little son, whom he proclaimed " Napoleon II, 

Emperor of the French.” 

3 The allies now signed with Louis what is known as the Second Treaty of Paris 
(November 20, 1815). France had now to accept the frontiers which were hers in 1789. 


564 


THE NAPOLEONIC EMPIRE * 


[§ 810 


and repose of the continent. Some even urged that he be given 
up to Louis XVIII to be shot as a rebel and an outlaw. The final 
decision was that he should be banished to the island of St. 
Helena, in the South Atlantic. Thither he was carried by the 
British, and closely guarded by them until his death in 1821. 

The story of these last years of Napoleon Bonaparte, as gath¬ 
ered from the companions of his exile, is one of the most pathetic 
in all history. At the time of his death he was in his fifty-second 
year. As a military genius and commander he left a deeper 
impress upon the imagination of the world and fills a larger place 
in history, probably, than any other man who ever lived. "He 
was as great as a man can be without virtue” (Tocqueville). 

References. Bourne, H. E.. The Revolutionary Period in France, chaps, 
xvii-xxvii. Among the numerous biographies of Napoleon the following pos¬ 
sess special merit and authority : Fournier, A., R T apoleon the First ; Johnston, 
R. M., Napoleon ; Rose, J. II., The Life of A T apoleon /, 2 vols.; Sloane, \V. M., 
Life of Napoleon Bonaparte , 4 vols.; Lanfrey, P., The History of A T apoleon 
the First, 4 vols. (left incomplete by the death of the author); Seeley, J. R., 
Napoleon the First ; and Ropes, J. C., The First A 7 apoleon. (Lanfrey makes the 
Emperor the subject of bitter reproach.) 

Works dealing with special phases of the history of the period: Mahan, 
A. T., The Influence of Sea Power upon the French Revolution and Empire, 
2 vols.; Seeley, J. R., Life and Ti?nes of Stein, 2 vols. 


Ill . FROM THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA TO THE 
TREATY OF VERSAILLES 

( 1815 - 1919 ) 

CHAPTER LXVIII 

THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA AND METTERNICH 

811 . Ideas bequeathed by the French Revolution. The 
social and political history of Europe since the overthrow of 
Napoleon is, in the main, a continuation of the history .of the great 
social and political upheaval which we have been witnessing. The 
dominant forces at work throughout this period have been the 
ideas or principles inherited from the French Revolution. 

There were three of these principles with which, as revolutionary 
forces in history, we have already become familiar in tracing 
the story of the Revolution and the Empire. The first was the 
idea or principle of equality; the second, that of the sovereignty 
of the people; the third, that of nationality. These principles or 
ideas, as we have said, were the precious political heritage which 
the nineteenth century received from the Revolution. 1 They were 
full of vitality and energy. Their outworking, their embodiment 
in social institutions, in law, in government, makes up a large 
part of universal history since the downfall of Napoleon. 

Throughout the period that generous sentiment of ’89, that 
all men are born and remain free and equal in rights, has been 
at work emancipating and elevating the hitherto unfree and down¬ 
trodden orders of society, and removing civil and religious and 
race disabilities from disqualified classes in the state. The period 

1 Of course these ideas were not novel doctrines promulgated now for the first time. 
All that is meant by calling them the ideas of the French Revolution is that by the Rev¬ 
olution they were invested with new authority and were given new course in the world. 

565 


THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA 


[§ 812 


566 

is especially rich in emancipation edicts and statutes. Slavery and 
serfdom and every form of mediaeval feudal inequality, under the 
influence of the new spirit of equality, have disappeared or are 
fast disappearing from the civilized world. 

The doctrine of the sovereignty of the people has likewise been 
a potent force in shaping the events of the period. A chief feature 
of the history of the time has been the substitution of representa¬ 
tive government for autocratic monarchy. It is this cause of 
democracy, of self-government, that has enlisted the efforts and 
inspired the self-sacrifice of the noblest spirits of the age. The 
people of every country where any considerable degree of en¬ 
lightenment has come to prevail have passionately espoused this 
principle and have fought for its establishment as the best hope 
for a better future for themselves and for their children. 

Equally powerful as a revolutionary force has been the sentiment 
of nationality. This has been at once a creative and a disruptive 
force. It has called into existence many nation states ; under the 
strain of a world war it has dismembered, wholly or in part, great 
historic empires and has remolded or is remolding their elements 
as near as may be in accord with racial affinities and national 
aspirations. 

But these ideas, as we have intimated, have not had free 
course. Their embodiment in social institutions and in political 
forms has been, in most countries, a process violent and revolu¬ 
tionary in character. This has resulted from these liberal prin¬ 
ciples coming into conflict with certain opposing conservative 
doctrines with which they have had to struggle for supremacy. 
And this brings us to the starting point of the history of the 
last century,— the celebrated Congress of Vienna. 

812. The Congress of Vienna (September, 1814-June, 1815). 
After the first abdication of Napoleon, as we have seen, the 
European sovereigns, either in person or by their representatives, 
met at Vienna to readjust the affairs of the continent. As we 
shall hereafter, in connection with the history of the separate 
European countries since the Vienna settlement, have occasion to 
say something respecting the relations of each to the Congress, we 



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§812] THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA 567 

shall here say only a word regarding the spirit and temper of 
the assembly and the general character of its work. 

The Vienna commissioners seemed to have but one thought 
and aim,— to restore everything as nearly as possible to its con¬ 
dition before the Revolution. They had no care for the people; 
the princes were their only concern. The principle of nationality 
was wholly ignored, while that of the sovereignty of the people 
was, by most of the plenipotentiaries, looked upon as a principle 
of disorder to be repressed in every possible way. The Congress 
was concisely and truthfully characterized by a liberal statesman 
of the time as " an auction of nations and an orgy of kings.” 

The first principle adopted by the Congress was that of legiti¬ 
macy. According to this principle a throne is to be regarded like 
any ordinary piece of property. Long possession gives a good and 
indefeasible title. Under this rule all the new usurping families 
set up by Napoleon were ejected without ceremony, and the old 
exiled dynasties were restored. The most important of these resti¬ 
tutions, either effected by the direct action of the Congress or 
already consummated by events and confirmed by it, were those 
which brought back the banished Bourbon dynasties in France, 
Spain, and Naples. 

The principle was applied only in the case of hereditary lay 
rulers. It was not applied to governments of city-states like 
Venice or the free cities of Germany, nor to ecclesiastical states. 
The crowd of ecclesiastical German princes whom Napoleon had 
dispossessed of their territories were not reinstated. The Pope, 
however, was made an exception to this exception. Pius VII was 
given back the Papal States. These formed now the only eccle¬ 
siastical state left in Europe. 

Another exception in the application of the principle was in 
the case of the hundreds of petty German rulers whose territories 
Napoleon in his reorganization of Germany had given to the 
larger states. These princelets were not restored. 

This question of legitimacy having been settled, the next ques¬ 
tion was how the territories recovered from Napoleon should be 
distributed among the dynasties recognized as legitimate. Tor 


THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA 


[§ 812 


568 

I 

most of the sovereigns this was the subject of chief interest. In 
making the distribution no thought whatever was taken of the 
rights and claims of race or nationality. The inhabitants of the 
countries available for division were apportioned among the dif¬ 
ferent sovereigns exactly as a herd of cattle might be divided up 
and apportioned among different owners. The following territorial 
settlements were among the most important. 

The Belgian and Dutch provinces were united into a single 
state, which, under the name of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, 
was given to a prince of the House of Orange. The purpose of 
this was to create on this side of France a strong barrier against 
possible French aggression in the future. The fact that the 
Dutch and the Belgians, by reason of differences in race, in reli¬ 
gion, and in industrial development, formed really two distinct 
nations was wholly ignored. 

A great part of what had been Poland was made into a subject 
kingdom of the Russian Empire. The Poles were informed that 
they must give up all thought and hope of the restoration of their 
national independence. 1 

Prussia was given about half of the kingdom of Saxony, exten¬ 
sive territories on both sides of the Rhine, and other lands, which 
gave her a more preponderant position in Germany than she had 
before the Revolution. 

Lombardy and Venetia in Upper Italy, along with other lands, 
were given to Austria. This extension of Austrian rule over 
Italian lands was one of the grossest violations of the principle of 
nationality of which the Congress was guilty, and was to be sig¬ 
nally avenged when the hour for Italian unity and independence 
arrived. 

In Germany the Congress built upon the basis laid by Napo¬ 
leon. Thirty-nine of the forty-two sovereign states, including 
Prussia and Austria, to which he had reduced the hundreds of 

1 Sweden was confirmed in the possession of Norway, which Denmark lost as a con¬ 
sequence of her alliance with Napoleon. The two countries were to form a dual monarchy, 
each having its own Parliament, or Diet, but united under a single crown. This arrange¬ 
ment subsisted until 1905, when Norway declared the union dissolved, and, choosing 
Prince Charles of Denmark as king, became an independent kingdom. 


§ S12] 


THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA 


569 


states constituting the old Germanic system, were organized into 
a confederation modeled upon the Confederation of the Rhine. 1 

In Italy, on the other hand, Napoleon’s work was undone and 
the old order of things was reestablished. With the exception of 
the provinces in the north, which, as we have seen, were given to 
Austria, the peninsula was divided into independent states, such 
as had existed before the Revolution. 2 

A third matter which occupied the attention particularly of the 
committee on German affairs was the granting of constitutions 
to their subjects by the different sovereigns. In spirit and in 
temper the restored rulers were for the most part the old pre¬ 
revolutionary despots come into their own again, but thoroughly 
frightened by what had happened. Their desire was to rule in 
the old autocratic way; but there were those among them who 
recognized that a change had come over the world, and that the 
old absolutism could not with safety be reestablished. 

Consequently constitutions were talked about. Louis XVIII 
had been required by the terms of the treaties of Paris to give 
France a constitution, the allies understanding perfectly that if 
the restored Bourbons should attempt to rule as absolute sover¬ 
eigns there would be trouble again which would unsettle everything 
in Europe. And now the Congress recommended to the German 
princes that representative bodies ("Assemblies of Estates,” 
they were called; the use of the word constitution was carefully 
avoided) be established in each state. The only states, besides 
France, which at this time actually received constitutions were 
the Netherlands, Switzerland, Poland, and Norway. 3 

And even where constitutions already existed or were now 
granted, these charters gave the people very little share in the 
government. They were constitutions of the strict aristocratic 
type; that is, they placed the government, where its form was 

1 For further details concerning the reorganization of Germany, see sect. 860. 

2 The little island of Helgoland, which commands the mouth of the Elbe, was at this 
time ceded to Great Britain by Denmark. In 1890 Great Britain ceded the islet to the 
new German Empire. 

3 Hungary, like England, had a constitution which had taken form during mediaeval 
times. Sweden also had a constitution dating from the revolutionary period. 


THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA 


[§ 813 


570 


monarchical, in the hands of the sovereign and a small body of 
voters. Practically the old regime of absolutism was almost every¬ 
where reestablished, d he world was made safe for autocracy. 

813. Prince Metternich. The spirit of the monarchical restora¬ 
tion of 1815, the spirit which controlled the Congress of Vienna, 
was incarnate in the celebrated Austrian minister, Prince Metter- 
nich. He hated the Revolution, which to him was the spirit of 

evil let loose in the world. The 
democratic spirit he declared to 
be the spirit of disorder which 
could not fail "to change daylight 
into darkest night.” The demand 
of the people for a share in govern¬ 
ment he regarded as presumptuous, 
and he was wholly convinced that 
any concession to their demands 
could result in nothing save hor¬ 
rible confusion and bloodshed. He 
believed that the only hope of the 
world was the old divine-right 
absolutism. 

Metternich’s system, therefore, 
was a system of repression. His 
maxim was "Let nothing be 
changed.” A diplomatist of wonderful astuteness, of wide experi¬ 
ence, and possessed of an intimate knowledge of the public affairs 
of all Europe, Metternich exerted a vast influence upon the history 
of the years from 1815 to 1848. This period might appropriately 
be called the Age of Metternich. It was due largely to the prince 
that during this period the old autocratic form of government pre¬ 
vailed so generally in Europe. 

814. Metternich and the Holy Alliance. The activity of Met¬ 
ternich during the earlier portion of the period of his ascendancy 
was so closely connected with a celebrated league known as the 
Holy Alliance that we must here say a word respecting the origin 
of this association. 



Fig. 135 . Prince Metternich 
(From a painting by Sir Thomas 
Lawrence) 


§ 815] 


OTHER FORMATIVE FORCES 


57i 


The Holy Alliance was a league formed just after the fall 
of Napoleon by the Tsar Alexander and having as its chief 
members Russia, Austria, and Prussia. The ostensible object of 
the league was the maintenance of religion, peace, and order in 
Europe and the reduction to practice in politics of the teachings 
of Christ. The several sovereigns entering into the union promised 
to be fathers to their people, to rule in love and with reference 
solely to the promotion of the welfare of their subjects. 

All this had a very millennial look. But the Holy Alliance very 
soon became practically a league for the maintenance of absolute 
principles of government, in opposition to the liberal tendencies 
of the age. Under the pretext of maintaining religion, justice, 
and order, the sovereigns of the union acted in concert to sup¬ 
press every aspiration for political liberty among their subjects. 

815. Other Principles, Movements, and Interests. Lest the 
foregoing sections should create in the mind of the reader a wrong 
impression of post-revolutionary history, we must here remind him 
of what we have said repeatedly; namely, that no single formula 
will suffice to sum up the history of any age. History is ever 
very complex, for many ideas and many forces are always simul¬ 
taneously at work shaping and coloring events. 

The history of the period since the Congress of Vienna presents 
a special complexity. While the great ideas transmitted to the age 
as a bequest from the Revolution were forces that have given the 
age its chief features, still throughout the era various other ideas, 
principles, and interests have contributed greatly to fill particularly 
the later years of the period with a vast complexity of move¬ 
ments,—intellectual, religious, industrial, and colonial. 

The spirit of the Renaissance has been in the society of the 
period a pervasive and powerful influence. Intelligence has be¬ 
come ever more diffused, and modern science, a special product 
of the revival, has constantly revealed fresh wonders of the uni¬ 
verse and armed man with new instruments of research and of 
mastery over nature. 

The true spirit of the Reformation, too, has been at work. As 
the years have passed, creeds have grown more liberal, and the 


572 


THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA 


[§ 315 


beneficent sentiment of toleration in religion, which has been 
declared to be "the best fruit of the last four centuries,” has 
made rapid progress in the world. 

Furthermore, the era has witnessed an unparalleled industrial 
development resulting from fortunate discoveries, ingenious me¬ 
chanical inventions, and a great variety of other causes. To a 
brief review of this world-transforming movement we shall give 
a special chapter. 

The period has also been marked by a wonderful expansion 
movement of the European peoples, a movement which has given 
the world very largely into the possession, or brought it under the 
control, of the bearers of the new and higher civilization created 
by the revolutions of the last three centuries in the homeland of 
Europe. To this significant movement we shall also devote a 
separate chapter under the heading "The Expansion of Europe.” 

The period was closed by the greatest war of all times, a war 
whose ultimate results must inevitably be so profound and far- 
reaching that it may well mark the opening of a new epoch in 
universal history. A review of the deeper causes of this stupendous 
conflict, a summary of its outstanding events, and a brief survey 
of the changed world which emerged from the overwhelming 
catastrophe will be all our prescribed space will permit. 

References. Among the great number of works covering the century 
between the Congress of Vienna and the World War the following present in 
brief survey the whole or some part or phase of the history of the period : 
Fyffe, C. A., A History of Modem Europe , ijq2-i8j8 (Popular Edition); 
Phillips, W. A., Modem Europe , i 8 ip-i 8 gg ; Andrews, C. M., The Historical 
Development of Modern Europe, 2 vols. ; SEIGNOBOS, C., A Political History of 
E.urope since 1814 ; Hazen, C. I)., Modern European History , chaps, xii-xxviii; 
Hayes, C. J. H., A Political and Social History of Modem Europe , vol. ii; 
Lowell, A. L., Governments and Parties in Continental Europe , 2 vols.; and 
Rose, J. II., The Development of the European Nations , 2 vols. 


CHAPTER LXIX 


FRANCE FROM THE SECOND RESTORATION TO TEE 

WORLD WAR 

(1815-1914) 

816. The Reign of Louis XVIII (isi 5 [i 4 ]-i 824 ). "Your king, 
whose fathers reigned over your fathers for more than eight 
centuries, now returns to devote the rest of his days to defend 
and to comfort you.” Such were the words used by Louis upon 
his second return to his people after Waterloo. The events of 
the Hundred Days had instructed and humbled him. Profiting 
by his experience, Louis ruled throughout a great part of the 
remainder of his reign with reasonable heed to the changes 
effected by the Revolution. But as he grew old and infirm he 
yielded more and more to the extreme Royalist party, which was 
again raising its head, and the government entered upon a course 
looking to the restoration of the old order of things. 

817. The Reign of Charles X (i824-i83o); the Revolution 
of 1830. Upon the death of Louis in 1824 and the accession 
of Charles X, this reactionary policy soon became more pro¬ 
nounced. The new king seemed utterly incapable of profiting 
by the teachings of the past. It was particularly his blind, stub¬ 
born course that gave point to the saying, "A Bourbon learns 
nothing and forgets nothing.” 

It is not necessary that we rehearse in detail what Charles did 
or what he failed to do. His aim was to undo the work of the 
Revolution, just as it was the aim of James II in England to undo 
the work of the Puritan Revolution. He disregarded the consti¬ 
tution, restored the clergy to power, and changed the laws by 
royal proclamation. He seemed bent on restoring divine-right 
monarchy in France. He declared that he would rather saw 
wood for a living than rule after the fashion of the British kings. 

573 


574 


FRANCE AFTER SECOND RESTORATION [§ 818 


The outcome might have been foreseen. Paris rose in revolt. 
Charles was escorted to the seacoast, whence he took ship for 
England. France did not at this time think of a republic. She 
was inclined to try further the experiment of a constitutional 
monarchy. Louis Philippe, Duke of Orleans, who represented the 
younger branch of the Bourbon family, was placed on the throne 
and the constitution was revised. In the charter which Louis 
XVIII had granted he had styled himself 'King of France by the 
grace of God” The new constitution declared Louis Philippe to 
be "King of the French by the grace of God and by the will of 
the nation.” The first principle of the Revolution—the sover¬ 
eignty of the people—was thus embodied in the fundamental 
law of France. 

818. Effect upon Europe of the "July Revolution” of 1830 ; 
Origin of the Kingdom of Belgium. The convulsion in Paris 
shook all the restored thrones, and for a moment threatened to 
topple into ruins the whole fabric of absolutism that had been so 
carefully upreared by the Congress of Vienna. In the Netherlands 
the artificial order established by that body (sect. 812) was 
undone. The Belgians rose, declared themselves independent of 
Holland, adopted a liberal constitution, and elected Leopold of 
Saxe-Coburg as their king (1831). Thus came into existence the 
separate kingdom of Belgium. The independence and neutrality 
of the little state were guaranteed by all the great powers. 

819. The Revolution of 1848 and the Establishment of the 
Second Republic. The reign of Louis Philippe up to 1848 was 
very unquiet, yet was not marked by any disturbance of great im¬ 
portance. But during all this time the ideas of the Revolution 
were working among the people, and the democratic party was 
constantly gaining in strength. Finally there came a demand for 
the extension of the suffrage. At this time there were only about 
two hundred thousand voters in France, the possession of a cer¬ 
tain amount of property being required as a qualification for the 
franchise. The government steadily refused all electoral reforms. 
Guizot, the king’s chief minister, declared that "this world is no 
place for universal suffrage.” 


§ 820] 


THE SECOND EMPIRE 


' 575 


There came an uprising like that of 1830. The center of this 
disturbance, of course, was Paris. Louis Philippe fled to Eng¬ 
land. After his departure the Paris mob dragged the throne out 
of the Tuileries and made a bonfire of it. 

The Second Republic was now set up. A new constitution 
established universal suffrage. An election being ordered, Louis 
Napoleon Bonaparte, a nephew of the great Napoleon, was chosen 
President of the new Republic (1848). 

The Paris " February Revolution,” as it is called, lighted the 
beacon fires of liberty throughout Europe. "It is scarcely an 
exaggeration to say that, during the month of March, 1848, not a 
single day passed without a constitution being granted somewhere.” 

820. The Second Empire ( 1852 - 1870 ). The life of the Second 
Republic spanned only three years. By almost exactly the same 
steps as those by which his uncle had mounted the imperial throne, 
Louis Napoleon now also ascended to the imperial dignity, crush¬ 
ing the Republic as he rose. 

A contest having arisen between the President and the National 
Assembly, the President planned a coup d’etat ,— a second Eight¬ 
eenth Brumaire (sect. 782). He caused the arrest at night of the 
most prominent of the deputies opposed to him in the Assembly 
and dissolved that body. His appeal to the people to indorse 
what he had done met with a most extraordinary response. By 
a majority of almost seven million votes the nation approved 
the President's coup d’etat and rewarded him for it by extend¬ 
ing his term of office to ten years. This was in effect the revival 
of the Consulate of 1799. The next year Louis Napoleon was 
made Emperor, and took the title of Napoleon III. 

The secret of Louis Napoleon’s success in his coup d’etat was 
in part the fear that prevailed of the renewal of the Terror of ’93, 
and in part the magic power of the name he bore. At just this 
time the name Napoleon was in France a name to conjure with. 
There had been growing up a Napoleonic legend. Time had 
idealized the founder of the First Empire. 

As the Second and the Third Republic were simply revivals 
and continuations of the First Republic, so was the Second 


576 FRANCE AFTER SECOND RESTORATION [§320 

Empire merely the revival and continuation of the First Empire. 
It was virtually the same in origin, in spirit, and in policy. 

Louis Napoleon had declared that the Empire meant peace. 
But it meant anything except that. The pages of its history are 
filled with the records of wars. There were three important ones 
in which the armies of the Empire took part,— the Crimean \\ ar 
(1853-1856), the Austro-Sardinian War (1859), and the Franco- 

Prussian War (1870-1871). The 
first two of these wars need not de¬ 
tain us at this time, since we shall 
speak of them later in connection 
with Russian and Italian affairs. 
The only thing that requires to be 
said here is that in each of them 
Louis Napoleon greatly enhanced 
his prestige throughout Europe. 

Respecting the causes of the 
third war,— the one between Prus¬ 
sia and France,—something will 
be said in connection with the rise 
of Germany as an imperial power 
(sect. 871) ; therefore only the 
outstanding events of the war itself 
will be given a place here. 

Upon the opening of the war three immense German armies swept 
into France. One large French army was defeated in the memo¬ 
rable battle of Gravelotte and shut up in Metz. Then followed 
the surrender at Sedan, where eighty-three thousand men, includ¬ 
ing the Emperor himself, gave themselves up as prisoners of war. 1 

The German columns now advanced to Paris and began the 
investment of the city. All reasonable hope of a successful defense 
of the capital was soon destroyed by the surrender to the Germans 
of Marshal Bazaine at Metz. One hundred and seventy-nine 
thousand soldiers and officers became prisoners of war,— the largest 
army that up to that time had ever been taken captive. But Paris 

1 After the war Louis Napoleon found an asylum in England. He died January 9,1873. 



Fig. 136. Napoleon III. (After 
a portrait by F. Winterhalter) 





§ 821] 


TREATY OF FRANKFORT 


577 


held out stubbornly, with great suffering from cold and hunger, 
three months longer; and then, all outside measures for raising 
the siege having failed, capitulated. 

821. Treaty of Frankfort (i87i). By the terms of the treaty 
which followed the surrender of Paris, France was required to pay 
an indemnity of five billion francs 1 ($1,000,000,000), and cede 
to Germany the Rhenish province of Alsace and part of Lorraine. 2 
The tearing away from France of these provinces was a gross 
violation of the principle of nationality, since the inhabitants of 
the ceded territories, though not wholly French in blood, were 
passionately French in sympathy and attachment. Against the 
“ odious abuse of force ” of which they were the unhappy victims, 
their delegates in the National Assembly at Bordeaux, on their 
withdrawal from the convention chamber, made the following 
solemn and prophetic protest: "Europe cannot permit or ratify 
the abandonment of Alsace and Lorraine. The civilized nations, 
as guardians of justice and national rights, cannot remain indif¬ 
ferent to the fate of their neighbors under pain of becoming in 
their turn victims of the outrages they have tolerated. Modern 
Europe cannot allow a people to be seized like a herd of cattle ; she 
cannot continue deaf to the repeated protests of threatened nation¬ 
alities. . . . We declare once for all null and void an agreement 
which disposes of us without our consent. ... In the moment we 
quit this hall, the supreme thought we find in the bottom of our 
hearts is a thought of unutterable attachment to the land from 
which in violence we are torn. Our brothers of Alsace and of 
Lorraine, separated at this moment from the common family, 
will preserve to France, absent from their hearthstones, an af¬ 
fection faithful to the day when she shall return to take her 

place again.” 3 

1 The last installment was paid in 1873, and the last unit of the German army of 
occupation was then withdrawn. 

2 The Red Republicans, or Communists, of Paris, indignant at the terms of the treaty, 
organized a Committee of Public Safety in imitation of that of 1793 , and called the 
population of the capital to arms. The government finally succeeded in suppressing 
the insurgents, though only after the destruction by fire of many public buildings and 
frightful slaughters in the streets and squares of the city. 

3 Jordan, Alsace-Lorraine, pp. 20-22. 


578 FRANCE AFTER SECOND RESTORATION [§822 

822. The Third Republic (i 87 o- ). The form of govern¬ 

ment which replaced the Empire was republican. 1 The current of 
political events under the Republic up to the outbreak of the War 
of 1914 ran somewhat turbulently. There were many changes of 
presidents and of ministries, and much party rancor was dis¬ 
played; yet in spite of all untoward circumstances the cause of the 
Republic steadily advanced, while that of the Monarchy and of 
the Empire as steadily went backward. Bourbons and Bonapartes, 
like Stuarts, went into an exile from which there was no return. 

Many of the difficulties and problems which confronted the 
Republic were legacies to it from the Monarchy and the Empire. 
The most fate-laden legacy of the war that destroyed the Empire 
was the Alsace-Lorraine matter. The deep resentment felt toward 
Germany for this dismemberment of France, together with the fear 
of further German aggression, caused the French government, in 
1891, to enter into an alliance with Russia,— an alliance which, 
as we shall see, was freighted with momentous consequences. 2 

A second legacy to the Republic was influential parties of 
Monarchists and Imperialists, who endeavored in every way to 
discredit the republican regime, and who watched for an oppor¬ 
tunity to set up again either the Monarchy or the Empire. 
The dangerous intrigues of these parties led in 1886 to the ex¬ 
pulsion from France of all the Bourbon and Bonaparte claimants 
of the throne and their direct heirs. 

A third bequest from the ancient regime was the educational 
problem,— for education of the people is the corollary of govern¬ 
ment by the people. Before the Revolution, education in France 
was mainly in the hands of the religious orders. The Revolution 
swept away these bodies and secularized the educational sys¬ 
tem. The restoration of the Monarchy brought about also the 

1 The Constitution of the Republic is not, like our own, a single document, but con¬ 
sists of a series of laws passed at different times. It provides for a legislature of two 
chambers, a Senate and a Chamber of Deputies, a President elected for seven years by 
the chambers in a joint meeting, and a Cabinet responsible to the legislature. The suf¬ 
frage is universal. The first president of the Republic was M. Thiers, the historian; 
M. Millerand was inaugurated as the eleventh president in 1920. 

* 2 This dual alliance became in 1907, through the adhesion of England, the great 
Triple Entente. See sect. 925. 


§ 822] 


REFERENCES 


579 


restoration of the religious orders. The system of education was 
now mixed, being in part lay and in part clerical. Among the 
Liberals many demanded the suppression of the clerical schools 
and the complete secularization of education. The final outcome 
of this fight against clerical influence in education and civil mat¬ 
ters was a complete separation of Church and State in 1905. This 
meant the disestablishment of the Roman Catholic Church (and 
of the Protestant and Jewish churches as well), and the annul¬ 
ment of the Concordat entered into between Napoleon and the 
Pope in 1802 1 (sect. 785). 

As to the part taken by France in the wonderful industrial 
development of the period under review, and in recent colonial 
enterprises, particularly in the opening up to civilization of the 
continent of Africa, we shall find it more convenient to speak in 
another connection. 2 With the opening of the World War in 1914, 
the history of France merges for a time with that of Europe and 
the world at large. 3 

References. In most of the works cited for the preceding chapter will be 
found chapters and sections dealing with French affairs during the period 
under review. To these authorities add the following: Dickinson, G. L., 
Revolution and Reaction in Modern France ; and Lebon, A., and Pelet, P., 
France as it Is. 

For the Second Empire: Forbes, A., The Life of A r apoleon the Tkird. For 
brief summaries of the events of the period : Lebon, A., Modern France , chaps, 
viii-xvi; Adams, G. B., The Growth of the French Nation , chap, xviii; and 
Hass ALL, A., The French People , chaps, xviii-xxi and xxiii. 


1 With the severance of all connection between Church and State, the payment of 
the salaries of the clergy by the government ceased. The use of the churches is left free 
to the Catholics, but the palaces of the bishops and other ecclesiastical buildings are 
now devoted to educational and non-religious purposes. 

A new disturbing factor in French public life of the period under review was Anti- 
Semitism, a systematic effort to stir public feeling against the Jews, which swept over 
Europe from about 1880 onward. A Jewish officer in the French army, Captain Dreyfus, 
was held guilty of treasonable dealings with foreign powers. At first almost everybody 
believed the charge; ultimately it proved that the real criminals had tried to screen 
themselves by accusing him. The Dreyfus case dominated French politics for years, 
discrediting group after group of politicians, and for a time much discrediting the gov- 
ernment, which at length cleared itself by providing for a rehearing and a just judgment, 
and by making handsome amends to those who had suffered injustice. 

2 See Chapter LXXV. 3 See Chapter LXXVII. 


CHAPTER LXX 


ENGLAND FROM THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO TO THE 

WORLD WAR 

(1815-1914) 

823 . The Four Chief Matters. British history during the 
hundred years between the battle of Waterloo and the outbreak 
of the* World War embraces a multitude of events. A short 
chapter covering the entire period will possess no instructive 
value unless it reduces the great mass of facts to some sort of 
unity by placing events in relation with their causes, and thus 
shows how they are connected with a few broad movements or 
tendencies. 

Studying the period in this way, we shall find that many 
of its leading events may be summed up under the four follow¬ 
ing heads: (i) progress toward democracy; (2) extension of 
the principle of religious equality; (3) England’s relations with 
Ireland; and (4) the growth of the British colonial empire. 

We shall attempt nothing more in the present chapter than to 
indicate the most prominent matters that should claim the stu¬ 
dent’s attention along the first three lines of inquiry, reserving 
for later sections the consideration of England’s colonial affairs. 

I. PROGRESS TOWARD DEMOCRACY 

824 . Introductory. The English Revolution of 1688 trans¬ 
ferred authority from the king to the Parliament. The elective 
branch of that body, however, rested upon a very narrow elec¬ 
toral basis. Out of upwards of five million Englishmen less than 
two hundred thousand were voters, and these were chiefly of the 
rich upper classes. The political democratizing of England dur¬ 
ing the period under review consists in the widening of the 

580 


§ 825] 


REFORM VERSUS REVOLUTION 


58i 


electorate,— in giving substantially to every adult person, without 
distinction of sex, the right of suffrage and of participation in the 
conduct of public affairs. 

825. Effects of the French Revolution upon Liberalism in 
England; Reform versus Revolution. The French Revolution 
at first gave a fresh impulse to liberal tendencies. The British 
Liberals watched the course of the French Republicans with the 
deepest interest and sympathy. It will be recalled how the states¬ 
man Fox rejoiced at the fall of the Bastille, and what augu¬ 
ries of hope he saw in that event. The young writers Coleridge, 
Wordsworth, and Southey were all infected with democratic sen¬ 
timents and inspired with a generous enthusiasm for political lib¬ 
erty and equality. But the wild excesses of the French levelers 
terrified the British Liberals. There was a sudden revulsion of 
feeling. Liberal sentiments were denounced as dangerous and 
revolutionary. 

But in a few years after the downfall of Napoleon the terrors of 
the French Revolution were forgotten. Liberal sentiments began 
to spread among the masses. The people very justly complained 
that, while the British government claimed to be a government 
of the people, they had no part in it. 

Now, it is instructive to note the different ways in which 
Liberalism was dealt with by the British government and by 
the rulers on the Continent. In the Continental countries the 
rising spirit of democracy was met by cruel and despotic repres¬ 
sions. We have seen the result of this policy in France, and later 
shall see the outcome of it in other Continental countries. Liber¬ 
alism triumphed indeed at last, but triumphed only through 
revolution. 

In England the government did not resist the popular demands 
to the point of revolution. It made timely concessions to the 
growing spirit of democracy. Hence here, instead of a series of 
revolutions, we have a series of reform measures which, gradually 
popularizing the House of Commons, at last rendered the Brit¬ 
ish nation, not alone in name but in reality, a self-governing 
people. 


582 


ENGLAND AFTER WATERLOO 


[§ 826 


826 . The Reform Bill of 1832 . The first Parliamentary step 
in reform was taken in 1832. To understand this important act 
a glance backward becomes necessary. 

When, in 1265, the Commons were first admitted to Parlia¬ 
ment, members were called only from those cities and boroughs 
whose wealth and population fairly entitled them to representa¬ 
tion. In the course of time some of these places dwindled in 
population and new towns sprang up; yet the decayed boroughs 
retained their ancient privilege of sending members to Parlia¬ 
ment, while the new towns were left entirely without represen¬ 
tation. Thus Old Sarum, an ancient town now utterly decayed 
and without a single inhabitant, was represented in the Commons 
by two members. Furthermore, the sovereign, for the purpose 
of gaining influence in the Commons, had, from time to time, 
given unimportant places the right of returning members to the 
Lower House. It was inevitable that elections in these small places 
("pocket boroughs,” they were called) .should almost always 
be determined by the corrupt influence of the crown or of the 
great landowners. The Lower House of Parliament was thus 
filled with the nominees of the king, or with persons who had 
bought their seats, often with little effort at concealment. At 
the same time, such large, recently grown manufacturing towns 
as Birmingham, Leeds, and Manchester had no representation 
at all in the Commons. 

Agitation was begun for the reform of this corrupt and farcical 
system of representation. The contest between Whigs and Tories, 
or Liberals and Conservatives, was long and bitter, the Conserva¬ 
tives opposing all refoim and denying that there was anv neces¬ 
sity for it. At last public feeling became so strong and menacing 
that the Lords, who were blocking the measure in the Upper 
House, were forced to yield, and the Reform Bill of 1832 became 
a law. By this act the British electoral system was radically 
changed. Eighty-six of the "rotten boroughs” were disfran¬ 
chised or semi-disfranchised, and the hundred and forty-two seats 
in the Lower House taken from them were given to different 
counties and to large towns hitherto unrepresented. The bill also 


§ 827] 


MUNICIPAL REFORM ACT 


583 


somewhat increased the number of electors by extending the right 
of voting to all persons in the towns owning or leasing property of 
a certain value, and by lowering the property qualification of 
voters in the counties. 

The importance of this reform bill can hardly be exaggerated. 
It is the Magna Carta of British political democracy. 1 

827 . The Municipal Reform Act of 1835 . The government 
of the British towns of this period needed reform as urgently as 
had the British Parliament. This municipal system was a system 
inherited from the Middle Ages. Most of the towns were ruled by 
corrupt oligarchies. Long agitation for their overthrow resulted 
in the passing of the Municipal Reform Act of 1835. This act 
accomplished for the government of the cities what the Reform Bill 
of 1832 had effected for the general government of the kingdom. 

823 . Chartism: the Revolutionary Year of 1848 . Although 
the Reform Bill of 1832 was almost revolutionary in the princi¬ 
ple it established, still it went only a little way in the application 
of that principle. It admitted to the franchise the middle classes 
only. The great laboring class were given no part in the govern¬ 
ment. They now began an agitation characterized by much bit¬ 
terness, and known as Chartism, from a document called the 
“ People’s Charter,” which embodied the reforms they desired. 
Among these were universal suffrage and vote by ballot. 

The agitation went on with more or less violence until 1848, in 
which year, encouraged by the revolutions then shaking almost 


1 The reform of the House of Commons gave an impulse to legislation of an humani¬ 
tarian or popular character. In 1833 an act was passed in the British Commons for the 
abolition of slavery. Nearly 800,000 slaves, chiefly in the British West Indies, were freed 
at a cost to the British nation of £ 20,000,000. This same year (1833) the first effective 
Factory Act was passed. This was the beginning of a long series of laws which gradually 
corrected the almost incredible abuses, particularly in connection with the employment 
of children, that had crept into the British factory system. A similar series of laws 
regulated labor in the mines. Also this same year Parliament voted an annual grant of 
£20,0 00 to aid in the erection of schoolhouses. This was the first step taken by the 
British government in the promotion of public education. In 1846 England, by the 
repeal of her "com laws,” abandoned the commercial policy of protection, which favored 
the great landowners, and adopted that of free trade. The chief advocates of this im¬ 
portant measure were Richard Cobden and John Bright. The enactment of the law 
was hastened by the blight of the potato crop in Ireland and consequent famine in 
the island. 


5§4 


ENGLAND AFTER WATERLOO 


[§ 829 


every throne on the European continent, the Chartists indulged 
in riotous demonstrations, which frightened the law-abiding citi¬ 
zens and brought discredit upon themselves. Their organization 
now soon fell to pieces. The reforms, however, which they had la¬ 



bored to secure, were, in the main, desirable and just, and the 
most important of these reforms have since been adopted and 

made a part of the British 
constitution. 

829. The Reform Bill of 
1867 and the Education Act 
of 1870. The Reform Bill of 
1867 was simply another step 
taken by the British govern¬ 
ment in the direction of the 
Reform Bill of 1832. Like that 
measure, it was passed only 
after long and violent agita¬ 
tion both without and within 
the walls of Parliament. The 
main effect of the bill was the 
extension of the right of vot¬ 
ing,— the enfranchisement of 
the great " fourth estate.” 

As after the Reform Bill of 1832, so now the attention of Par¬ 
liament was directed to the matter of public instruction; for all 
recognized that universal education must go along with universal 
suffrage. Three years after the passage of this second reform 
bill Parliament passed an education act (1870) which aimed to 
provide an elementary education for every child in the British 
Isles by investing the local authorities with power to establish and 
maintain schools and compel the attendance of the children. 

830. The Reform Bill of 1884. One of the conservative 
leaders, the Earl of Derby, in the discussions upon the Reform 
Bill of 1867, said, "No doubt we are making a great experiment, 
and taking a leap in the dark.” Just seventeen years after the 
passage of that bill the British people were ready to take another 


Fig. 137. Queen Victoria as a 
Young Woman. (After a painting by 
Partridge) 



§ 831 ] 


REFORM OF RURAL GOVERNMENT 


585 

leap. But they were not now leaping in the dark. The wisdom 
and safety of admitting the lower classes to a share in the govern¬ 
ment had been demonstrated. 

In 1884 Mr. Gladstone, then Prime Minister, introduced and 
pushed to a successful vote a new reform bill more radical and 
sweeping in its provisions than any preceding one. It increased 
the number of voters from about three millions to five millions. 
The qualification of voters in the counties was made the same as 
that required of voters in the boroughs. Hence its effect was to 
enfranchise the great agricultural classes. 1 

831. The Reform of Rural Local Government. Parliament 
and the government of the municipalities were now fairly democ¬ 
ratized. The rural districts were the last to feel the influence of 
the liberal movement that was so profoundly reconstructing in 
the interest of the masses the governmental institutions of the 
United Kingdom. But the movement finally reached these, and 
the work of democratic reconstruction has been rounded out and 
completed by different acts of Parliament,, which have put more 
directly into the hands of the people of each of the smaller sub¬ 
divisions of the realm the management of their local affairs. 

832. The "Veto” of the House of Lords Abolished ( 1911 ). 
The most radical change in the British constitution since the 
Reform Bill of 1832 was effected in 19 n by an act whereby the 
legislative power of the House of Lords was limited, and thus its 
power permanently to defeat measures approved by the lower 
chamber taken away. 2 The veto power, as it may be termed, 

1 The democratization of the electorate was virtually completed, under the stress of 
the World War, by the Representation of the People Act, in 1918. This was an electoral 
law which went further than any earlier similar measure. It established substantially 
manhood suffrage, the property basis for men being virtually abandoned, and gave the 
vote to every woman thirty years of age or over " who occupies a home, without regard 
to value, or any landed property of the annual value of £5, of which she or her husband 
is the tenant.” These measures doubled the electorate, adding 8,000,000, of whom 
6,000,000 were women, to the body of voters. 

2 The act, which, like the Reform Bill of 1832, received the sanction of the Upper 
House only through a threatened creation of peers, provides that hills (other than certain 
bills specified) if passed by the House of Commons in three successive sessions, — a 
certain order of procedure being observed, — shall become law without the concurrence 
of the Lords. By this same act the maximum duration of Parliament was limited to five 
years instead of seven. 


586 


ENGLAND AFTER WATERLOO 


[§ 833 


of the Lords was annulled because it had been used by them to 
obstruct or defeat reform legislation initiated by the Liberals of 
the House of Commons. The particular action of the Lords 
which created the crisis was their rejection of a budget introduced 
by David Lloyd George, Chancellor of the Exchequer. Increased 
revenue being needed to meet the cost of a newly inaugurated 
old-age pension policy and a larger navy, the budget provided 
for new taxes on land, inheritances, and large incomes. Passed 
by the Commons, the budget was rejected by the House of Lords. 
This action of the Lords was denounced by the Liberals as a vio¬ 
lation of the Constitution, it being held that money bills and 
taxation were matters pertaining exclusively to the jurisdiction 
of the Commons. After a bitter debate and an appeal by the 
government to the people in a new election, the Lords finally 
yielded and passed the budget. But their action in venturing to 
obstruct the bill had so alarmed and angered the Liberals of the 
Commons that they now resolved to curb effectually the power 
of the Lords over legislation, which end was reached by the act 
mentioned above. 

This reform makes the will of the British people as expressed 
through their representatives in the House of Commons supreme 
and independent, since the veto power of the Crown fell into disuse 
more than a century ago, and the royal assent is now never with- 
held from a bill that has the sanction of Parliament. 

II. EXTENSION OF THE PRINCIPLE OF RELIGIOUS 

EQUALITY 

833 . Religious Freedom and Religious Equality. Alongside 
the political movement traced in the preceding sections ran a simi¬ 
lar one in the religious realm. This was a growing recognition by 
the British people of the true principle of religious toleration. 

At the opening of the nineteenth century there was in England 
religious freedom, but no religious equality. That is to say, one 
might be a Roman Catholic or a Protestant dissenter without fear 
of persecution. Dissent from the Established Church was not 


§ 834] REPEAL OF CORPORATION AND TEST ACTS 587 

unlawful; but one’s being a Roman Catholic or a Protestant non¬ 
conformist disqualified him from holding certain public offices. 
Where there exists such discrimination against any religious sect, 
or where any one sect is favored or sustained by the government, 
there of course is no religious equality, although there may be 
religious freedom. 

Progress in this direction, then, will consist in the growth of a 
really tolerant spirit, which shall lead to the removal of all civil 
disabilities from Catholics, Protestant dissenters, and Jews, and 
the placing of all sects on an absolute equality before the law. 

834. Disabilities removed from Protestant Dissenters (i828). 
One of the earliest and most important of the acts of Parlia¬ 
ment in this century in recognition of the principle of religious 
equality was the repeal of the Corporation and Test acts, in 
so far as they bore upon Protestant dissenters. These were acts 
passed in the reign of Charles II, which required every munici¬ 
pal officer, and all persons holding civil and military positions, 
to take certain oaths and partake of the communion according 
to the rites of the Anglican Church. It is true that these laws 
were not now strictly enforced; nevertheless, the laws were 
invidious and vexatious, and the Protestant dissenters demanded 
their repeal. 

Those opposed to the repeal argued that the principle of reli¬ 
gious toleration did not require it. They insisted that, where 
everyone has perfect freedom of worship, it is no infringement 
of the principle of toleration for the government to refuse to 
employ as a public servant one who dissents from the State 
Church. The result of the debate in Parliament was the repeal 
of such parts of the ancient acts as it was necessary to rescind in 
order to relieve Protestant dissenters. 

835. Disabilities removed from Roman Catholics (1829). 
The bill of 1828 gave no relief to Catholics. They were still 
excluded from Parliament and various civil offices by the decla¬ 
rations of belief and the oaths required of officeholders,— decla¬ 
rations and oaths which no good Catholic could conscientiously 
make. They now demanded that the same concessions be 


5 88 


ENGLAND AFTER WATERLOO 


[§ 836 


made them that had been granted Protestant dissenters. A threat¬ 
ened revolt on the part of the Irish Catholics hurried through 
Parliament the progress of what was known as the " Catholic 
Emancipation Act.” This law opened Parliament and all offices 
below the Crown,— save that of Regent, of Lord High Chancellor 
of England and Ireland, of Lord Deputy of Ireland, and a few 
others,— to the Catholic subjects of the realm. 

836 . Disabilities removed from the Jews (issa). Persons 
professing the Jewish religion were still laboring under all the 
disabilities which had now been removed from Protestant dis¬ 
senters and Catholics. In 1858 an act (Jewish Relief Act) was 
passed by Parliament which so changed the oath required of a 
person taking office—the oath contained the words, "upon the 
true faith of a Christian”—as to open all public positions, except 
a few special offices, to persons of the Jewish faith. 

The year of the passage of the act, the distinguished Jew Baron 
Rothschild, taking the oath of office upon the Old Testament, 
was admitted to a seat in the House of Commons. 

837 . Disestablishment of the Irish Church (i860). Forty 
years after the Catholic Emancipation Act the British govern¬ 
ment took another great step in the direction of religious equality 
by the disestablishment of the State Church in Ireland. ( 

The Irish have always and steadily refused to accept the religion 
which their British conquerors have somehow felt constrained to 
try to force upon them. The vast majority of the people are 
today, and ever have been, Catholics; yet up to the time where 
we have now arrived these Irish Catholics had been compelled 
to pay tithes and fees for the maintenance among them of the 
Anglican Church worship. Meanwhile all their own churches, in 
which the great masses were instructed and cared for spiritually, 
had to be kept up by voluntary contributions. 

The rank injustice in thus forcing the Irish Catholics to sup¬ 
port not merely a Church in which they did not believe but a 
Church which they regarded with special aversion and hatred as 
the symbol of their subjection and persecution, was perceived 
and declaimed against by not a few even among the British 


§ 838] 


DISESTABLISHMENT PROPOSALS 


589 



Protestants themselves. The proposal to do away with this 
grievance by the disestablishment of the State Church in Ireland 
was bitterly opposed by the Conservatives, headed by Lord Derby 
and Mr. Disraeli; but at length,, after a memorable debate, 
the Liberals, under the lead 
of Bright and Gladstone, 
the latter then Prime Min¬ 
ister, carried the measure. 

This was in 1869, but the 
actual disestablishment was 
not to take place until the 
year 1871, at which time 
the Irish Church, ceasing to 
exist as a state institution, 
became a free Episcopal 
Church. An ancient wrong 
was thus undone. 1 

838. Proposed Disestab¬ 
lishment of the State 
Church in England and 
Scotland. The principle of 
religious equality demands, 
in the opinion of many Lib¬ 
erals, the disestablishment 
likewise of the State Church 
in England and Scotland.- 
They feel that for the gov¬ 
ernment to maintain any 
particular sect is to give the 

state a monopoly in religion. They would have the churches 
of all denominations placed on an absolute equality. Especially 
in Scotland is the sentiment in favor of disestablishment very 

strong. 


Fig. 138. Lord Beaconsfield (Dis¬ 
raeli), " The Courtier Premier ” 
(From the monument in Westminster 
Abbey) 


1 In 1914, just before the outbreak of the World War, the British Parliament passed 
a bill disestablishing the Church in Wales, but the carrying into effect of the bill was 
postponed until after the end of the war. 

2 The Established Church in Scotland is the Presbyterian. 






















590 


ENGLAND AFTER WATERLOO 


[§ 839 


III. ENGLAND’S RELATIONS WITH IRELAND 

839. Legislative Union of Great Britain and Ireland (isoo). 
The history of Ireland in the nineteenth century, like her history 
in all preceding centuries, is in the main a story of Irish grievances 
against England. These grievances have for the most part arisen 
out of three distinct yet closely related subject-matters,— religion, 
Home Rule, and the land. Concerning the religious grievances 
of the Irish and their redress we have already spoken in connec¬ 
tion with the general religious emancipation movement in Eng¬ 
land. For any kind of understanding of the subject of Irish 
Home Rule a glance backward at Irish parliamentary history 
is necessary. 

Ireland, it will be recalled, secured legislative independence of 
England in 1782 (sect. 728). When, a little later, Napoleon came 
to the head of affairs in France, there was apprehension on the 
part of British statesmen lest he should utilize Irish discontent 
to secure a foothold in the islands. As a measure of precaution 
the British government resolved to get rid of the Irish Parliament. 
By wholesale bribery its members were induced to pass a sort of 
self-denying ordinance whereby the Parliament was abolished, or 
rather merged with that of Great Britain, Ireland being given 
representation at Westminster. The two islands were henceforth 
to bear the name of "The United Kingdom of Great Britain 
and Ireland.” 

840 . Agitation for the Repeal of the Union. The great body 
of Irish patriots did not at the time of these transactions admit, 
nor have they at any time since admitted, the validity of the Act 
of Union whereby their Parliament was taken from them. In the 
early forties the agitation for the repeal of the Union and the 
reestablishment of their native legislature assumed, under the in¬ 
citement of the eloquence of the Irish patriot Daniel O’Connell, 
almost the character of a rebellion. Some years later, in the 
sixties, the agitation was carried to the point of actual insurrec¬ 
tion, but the movement was suppressed and its leaders were 
punished. 


§ 841] 


HOME RULE FOR IRELAND 


59i 


841. Gladstone and Home Rule for Ireland. It was not long 
before the Irish question was again to the front. In 1886 Wil¬ 
liam Ewart Gladstone became for the third time Prime Minister. 
Almost his first act was the introduction in the Commons of a 



Fig. 139. William Ewart Gladstone. (After a painting by Lenbach) 


Home Rule bill for Ireland. The main feature of this measure 
was an Irish legislature sitting at Dublin, to which was to be 
intrusted the management of all exclusively Irish affairs. 

The chief arguments urged by the opponents of the bill were 
that an Irish legislature would deal unfairly with British landlords 
in Ireland, would oppress the Irish Protestants, and, above all, in 
time of national distress would sever Ireland from the British 
Empire. After a long debate the bill was rejected by the Commons. 












































































592 


ENGLAND AFTER WATERLOO 


[§ 842 


In 1893 Gladstone, being then Premier for the fourth time, 
brought in a new Home Rule bill, which in its essential features 
was like his first. The bill passed the Commons, but was rejected 
by the House of Lords. The following year, owing to the infirmi¬ 
ties of advanced age, Gladstone laid down the burdens of the 
premiership and retired from public life. He died in 1898 at the 
age of eighty-eight, and, amidst unusual demonstrations of na¬ 
tional grief, was buried in Westminster Abbey. His name has a 
sure place among the great names in British history. 

842 . Agrarian Troubles and Agrarian Legislation. Before 
the relief legislation, of which we shall speak directly, very much 
of Irish misery and discontent arose from absentee landlordism. 
A great part of the soil of Ireland was owned by a few hundred 
British proprietors, who represented in the main, either as heirs 
or as purchasers, those English and Scotch settlers to whom the 
lands taken away from the natives were given at the time of the 
Cromwellian and other Protestant "settlements" of the island. 
It was often the case that the agents of these absentee landlords 
dealt harshly with their tenants and exacted as rent every penny 
that could be wrung from their poverty. If a tenant made im¬ 
provements upon the land he tilled, and by ditching and subduing 
it increased its productive power, straightway his rent was raised. 
If he failed to pay the higher rent, he was evicted. The records of 
" eviction ” form a sad chapter in the history of the Irish peasantry. 

A long series of Irish land laws marks the efforts of the British 
Parliament to alleviate the distress of the Irish tenant farmers. 
In 1903 an Irish land-purchase bill, more sweeping and liberal 
than any preceding measure, was enacted into a law. This law 
differed from earlier ones in the provision that peasants desiring 
to buy their holdings should be aided, not merely by a government 
loan on long time and at low interest, but further by the govern¬ 
ment’s paying a part of the purchase price. This liberal 
measure, gradually carried into effect during the earlier years of 
the twentieth century, has converted the great body of Irish 
tenants into proprietors, and thus has revolutionized the relation 
of the Irish peasantry to the Irish soil. 


§ 843] 


THIRD IRISH HOME RULE BILL 


593 


843. The Third Irish Home Rule Bill ( 1914 ). But land 
reforms, together with other measures of relief, proved ineffectual 
to quiet the agitation for a separate Irish Parliament. In the 
early years of the twentieth century the subject was again before 
the Commons, and a third Home Rule bill was framed and intro¬ 
duced (1912). The "veto” power of the Lords, the rock on which 
Gladstone’s last Home Rule bill had been wrecked, had been 
abolished (sect. 832), but an even greater obstacle to the success 
of the measure now was the stubborn opposition of the Protes¬ 
tants of Ulster, in northeast Ireland. They even threatened to 
revolt if any attempt were made to put them under the rule of an 
Irish Parliament. On the other hand, the majority of the people 
of Ireland objected strenuously to any sort of Home Rule which 
did not apply alike to all Ireland. 

Finally, after bitter debate, the bill, having been passed in 
three successive sessions of the Commons (being each time re¬ 
jected by the Lords), received the signature of the king; but be¬ 
fore the law became operative, the great European conflict had 
begun, and the establishment of the new regime was postponed 
until after the war. 1 

References. For Parliamentary reform: May, T. E., The Constitutional 
History of England, 2 vols.; GAMMAGE, R. G., History of the Chartist Move¬ 
ment, 1837-18*4 ; McCarthy, J., The Epoch of Reform ; Carlyle, T., Chartism. 

For Irish matters: Lecky, W. E. IE, History of Ireland in the Eighteenth 
Century , vol. v, chaps, xii and xiii (for the legislative union of England and 
Ireland); Two Centuries of Irish History, 1691-1870, by different writers, with 
an Introduction by James Bryce ; Dicey, E., England's Case against Home 

Rule-, King, I). B., The Irish Question. 

Biographies : Morley, J., The Life of William Ewart Gladstone, 3 vols. 

Brandes, G., Lord Beaconsfield. 

For the social, intellectual, and industrial life of the pei iod . Traill, H. D., 
Social England, vol. vi; and Cheyney, E. P., An Introduction to the Industrial 
and Social History of England, chaps, viii-x. For a general review of the events 
of the period : McCarthy, J., History of Our Oivn Times (various editions). 

1 This delay caused great bitterness in Ireland, and the end of the war found the Irish 
problem more acute than ever, with a strong party, known as Sinn heiners, demanding 
absolute independence from Great Britain. In 1921 a new Home Rule bill which pro¬ 
vided for two Irish Parliaments, one for Protestant Ulster and another for the rest of 
Ireland, having received the royal assent, came into operation. 


CHAPTER LXXI 


THE LIBERATION AND UNIFICATION OF ITALY 

844 . Italy at the Downfall of Napoleon. The Italian peoples, 
as being the most dangerously infected with the ideas of the Revo¬ 
lution, were, by the reactionary Congress of Vienna, condemned 
to the most strict and ignominious slavery. The former republics 
were not allowed to restore their ancient institutions, while the 
petty principalities were handed over in almost every case to the 
tyrants or to the heirs of the tyrants who had ruled them before 
the Revolution. Austria, as has already been stated (sect. 812), 
appropriated Venetia and Lombardy, and from northern Italy 
assumed to direct the affairs of the whole peninsula. The Italians 
were thus made "a Helot nation.” Italy, in the words of Metter- 
nich, was merely "a geographical expression.” 

But the Revolution had sown the seeds of liberty, and time only 
was needed for their maturing. The Cisalpine, Ligurian, Parthe- 
nopean, and Tiberine republics, short-lived though they were, had 
awakened in the people an aspiration for self-government; while 
Napoleon’s kingdom of Italy, though equally delusive, had never¬ 
theless inspired thousands of Italian patriots with the sentiment 
of national unity. Thus the French Revolution, disappointing as 
seemed its issue, really imparted to Italy her first impulse in the 
direction of freedom and national organization. 

845 . Arbitrary Rule of the Restored Princes. The setting up 
of the overturned thrones meant, of course, the reinstating of the 
old tyrannies. I he restored despots came back with an impla¬ 
cable hatred of everything French. The liberal constitutions of 
the revolutionary period were set aside, and all French institu¬ 
tions that were supposed to tend in the least to liberalism were 
swept away. In Sardinia, King Victor Emmanuel I, the "royal 
Rip Van Winkle,” instituted a most extreme reactionary policy. 

594 


§ 846] 


THE UPRISINGS OF 1820-1821 


595 


Nothing that bore the French stamp, nothing that had been set up 
by French hands, was allowed to remain. Even the French furni¬ 
ture in the royal palace at Turin was thrown out of the windows, 
and the French plants in the royal gardens were pulled up root 
and branch. 

846. The Uprisings of 1820-1821. The natural result of the 
arbitrary rule of the restored princes was deep and widespread dis¬ 
content. In the revolutionary years 1820-1821 there were insur¬ 
rections in Naples and Sardinia. But these movements were 
quickly suppressed through the actual or threatened intervention 
of Austrian armies, and the autocratic princes confirmed in their 
absolute authority. 

The suppression of the Liberal uprisings seemed to Mettemich 
the sure pledge of divine favor. He writes exultantly: " I see the 
dawn of a better day. . . . Heaven seems to will that the world 
should not be lost.” 

847. The Revolution of 1830-1831. For just ten years all 
Italy lay in sullen vassalage to Austria. Then the revolutionary 
years of 1830-1831 witnessed a repetition of the scenes of 1820- 
1821. The center of the revolution was the Papal States. But 
the presence of Austrian troops, who, " true to their old principle 
of hurrying with their extinguishers to any spot in Italy where 
a crater opened,” had poured into central Italy, resulted in the 
speedy quenching of the flames of the insurrection. 

848. The Three Parties. Twice now had Austrian armies 
defeated the efforts of the Italians for national unity and freedom. 
Italian hatred of these foreign intermeddlers who were causing 
them to miss their destiny grew ever more intense, and "Death to 
the Germans! ” as the Austrians were called, became the watch¬ 
word that united all the peoples of the peninsula. 

But, while united in their fierce hatred of the Austrians, the 
Italians were divided in their views respecting the best plan for 
national organization. One party wanted a confederation of the 
various states; a second party wished to see Italy a constitutional 
monarchy with the king of Sardinia at its head , while still a third, 
known as " Young Italy,” wanted a republic. 


59^ 


THE UNIFICATION OF ITALY 


[§ 849 


849. Joseph Mazzini, the Patriot and Prophet. The leader 
of the third or republican party was the patriot Joseph Mazzini. 
Mazzini was not a narrow nationalist. He recognized the univer¬ 
sal character of the democratic revolution. The people were 
oppressed not only in Italy but in Spain, in Hungary, in Poland, 
in Russia, in Turkey,—almost everywhere, in truth. Their cause 
was a common cause. In opposition to the Holy Alliance of the 
princes formed with aim to oppress, there must be a Holy Alliance 
of the peoples formed with aim to emancipate. The French Revo¬ 
lution, he said, had proclaimed the liberty, equality, and fra¬ 
ternity of individual men; the new revolution should proclaim 
the liberty, equality, and fraternity of nations. 

In this great work of the emancipation and unification of the 
world, Italy was to be head and guide of the nations. To her 
this post of leadership was assigned by virtue of her leadership 
in the past. Once pagan Rome organized and ruled the world. 
Then papal Rome organized and ruled it for a thousand years. 
Now a third world union was to be formed, and of this union 
of the free and federated nations Italy, Italy as a republic, 
was to be center and head. The first Rome was the Rome of 
the Caesars; the second was the Rome of the Popes; the third was 
to be the Rome of the Italian People. 

Such was Mazzini’s interpretation of the drama of world history. 
Such was his splendid ideal. Through kindling the enthusiasm 
of the Italian youth, awakening the sentiment of patriotism, and 
keeping alive the spirit of insurrection, Mazzini rendered a great 
service to the cause of Italian liberation and union. 

850. The Revolution of 1848 - 1849 . After the suppression of 
the uprising of 1830 until the approach of the memorable year 
1848, Italy lay restless under the heel of her oppressor. The 
republican movements throughout Europe which characterized 
that year of revolutions encouraged the Italian patriots in another 
attempt to achieve independence and nationality. Everywhere 
throughout the peninsula they rose against their reactionary and 
despotic rulers and forced them to grant constitutions and in¬ 
stitute reforms. 


§ 851 ] 


VICTOR EMMANUEL II 


597 


But through the intervention of the Austrians and the French 
the third Italian revolution was brought to naught. This inter¬ 
ference by the French in Italian affairs was prompted by their 
jealousy of Austria and the desire of Louis Napoleon to win the 
good will of the Catholic clergy in France. 

Much, however, had been gained. The patriots had been taught 
the necessity of united action. Henceforward all were more 
inclined to look upon the kingdom of 
Sardinia as the only possible basis 
and nucleus of a free and united 
Italy. 

851 . Victor Emmanuel II, Count 
Cavour, and Garibaldi. Sardinia was 
a state which had gradually grown 
into power in the northwest corner of 
the peninsula. The throne was at this 
time held by Victor Emmanuel II 
(1849-1878), the only constitutional 
ruler in Italy. To him it was that the 
hopes of the Italian patriots now 
turned. Nor were these hopes to be jr IG , 40 . count Cavour 
disappointed. Victor Emmanuel was (From an engraving) 

the destined liberator of Italy, or per¬ 
haps it would be more correct to say that his was the name in 
which the achievement was to be effected by the wise policy of 
his great minister Count Cavour and the reckless daring of the 
national hero Garibaldi. 

Count Cavour was the Bismarck of Italy,—one of those great 
men who during this formative period in the life of the European 
peoples have earned the title of Nation Makers. He was lacking 
in oratorical and poetic gifts. I cannot make a sonnet, he said, 
"but I can make Italy,”—an utterance suggested doubtless by 
that of the Athenian statesman (Themistocles) who boasted that 
though "he knew nothing of music and song, he did know how of 
a mean city to make a great one.” Cavour was the leal maker 

of modern Italy. 






THE UNIFICATION OF ITALY 


[§ 852 


598 

Garibaldi, "the hero of the red shirt,” the knight-errant of 
Italian independence, was a most remarkable character. Though 
yet barely past middle life, he had led a career singularly crowded 
with varied experiences and romantic adventures. Because of 
his violent republicanism he had already been twice exiled 
from Italy. 

852 . Sardinia in the Crimean War. In 1855, in pursuance of 
a far-sighted policy, Cavour sent a Sardinian contingent of fifteen 
thousand men to aid England and France against Russia in the 
Crimean War (sect. 878), with the two chief aims of giving Sar¬ 
dinia a standing among the powers of Europe, and of earning the 
gratitude of England and France, so that the Italians in their 
future struggles with Austria might not have to fight their battles 
alone. 

A little incident in the trenches of the allies before Sevastopol 
shows in what spirit the Sardinians had gone to the war. A soldier, 
covered with mud and wearied with the everlasting digging, com¬ 
plained to his superior officer. "Never mind,” was the consoling 
reply; "it is with this mud that Italy is to be made.” 

853 . Cavour prepares for War with Austria. Soon after the 
close of the Crimean War, Cavour received from the French Em¬ 
peror Napoleon III a promise that a French army, when the favor¬ 
able moment arrived, would aid the Sardinians in driving the 
Austrians out of Italy. In this proffer of help the French Em¬ 
peror was actuated less by gratitude for the aid of the Sardinian 
contingent in the war against Russia than by a desire to lessen 
the power of Austria in Italy and to replace it by French influence, 
and to secure Savoy and Nice, which were to be France’s reward 
for her intervention in Sardinia’s behalf. 

854 . The Austro-Sardinian War (i 859 -i 86 o). Sardinia now 
began to arm. Austria, alarmed at these demonstrations, called 
upon Sardinia to disarm immediately, upon threat of war. Cavour 
eagerly accepted the challenge. The French armies were joined 
to those of Sardinia. The two great victories of Magenta and 
Solferino drove the Austrians out of Lombardy. Just at this junc¬ 
ture the menacing attitude of Prussia and other German states, 






































































































§ 855 ] 


PROGRESS OF THE UNIFICATION 


599 


which were alarmed at the prospective aggrandizement of France, 
and the rapid spread of the revolutionary movement in Italy, which 
foreshadowed the union of all the states of the peninsula in a single 
kingdom,—something which Louis Napoleon did not wish to see 
consummated, 1 —this new situation of things, in connection with 
other considerations, caused the French Emperor to draw back 
and to enter upon negotiations of peace with the Austrian Emperor 
Francis Joseph at Villafranca. 

The outcome was that Austria 
retained Venice, but gave up to 
Sardinia the larger part of Lom¬ 
bardy. The Sardinians were bit¬ 
terly disappointed that they did 
not get Venetia, since at the out¬ 
set the French Emperor had de¬ 
clared that he would free Italy 
from the "Alps to the Adriatic.” 

But Sardinia found compen¬ 
sation for Venice in the acces¬ 
sion of Tuscany, Modena, Parma, 
and the Romagna, the peoples of 
which states, having discarded 
their old rulers, besought Victor 
Emmanuel to permit then* to unite themselves to his kingdom. 
Thus, as the result of the war, the king of Sardinia had added to 
his subjects a population of seven millions. A long step had been 
taken in the way of Italian unity and freedom. 

055. Sicily and Naples, with Umbria and the Marches, added 
to Victor EmmanuePs Kingdom (i 860 ). The adventurous daring 
of the hero Garibaldi now added Sicily and Naples, and indirectly 
Umbria and the Marches, to the possessions of Victor Emmanuel, 
and changed the kingdom of Sardinia into the kingdom of Italy. 



Fig. 141. Garibaldi. (From an 
engraving) 


1 Napoleon III did not wish for a united Italy any more than he wished for a united 
Germany. His aim was to create a kingdom in northern Italy which would exclude 
Austria from the peninsula and then to bring about a confederation of all the Italian 
states under the presidency of the Pope. Italy thus reconstructed would, he conceived, 
be fain to look to the French Emperor as her champion and patron. 






6oo 


THE UNIFICATION OF ITALY 


[§856 


All this took place under the following circumstances. In i860 
the subjects of the Bourbon Francis II, king of the Two Sicilies, 
rose in revolt. Garibaldi, favored by the connivance of the 
Sardinian government, having gathered a band of a thousand 
volunteers, set sail from Genoa for Sicily, where upon landing he 
assumed the title of Dictator of Sicily for Victor Emmanuel, King 
of Italy, and quickly drove the troops of King Francis out of 
the island. Then crossing to the mainland he marched trium¬ 
phantly to Naples, whose inhabitants hailed him tumultuously as 
their deliverer. 

Count Cavour saw r that the time had come for the Sardinian 
government openly to assume guidance of the revolutionary move¬ 
ment. The papal territories and Naples were accordingly occupied 
by a regular Sardinian army. Meanwhile a plebiscite, or popular 
vote, having been ordered, the papal lands of Umbria and the 
Marches, together with Naples, and Sicily, voted almost unani¬ 
mously for annexation to the Sardinian kingdom. 

Thus was another long step taken in the unification of Italy. 
Nine millions more of Italians had become the subjects of Victor 
Emmanuel. There were now wanting to complete the union only 
Venetia and Rome, together with some Italian lands on the north 
and at the head of the Adriatic. 

856. Venetia added to the Kingdom ( 1866 ). The Seven 
Weeks’ War (sect. 869), which broke out between Prussia and 
Austria in 1866, afforded the Italian patriots the opportunity for 
which they were watching to make Venetia a part of the kingdom 
of Italy. Victor Emmanuel formed an alliance with the king of 
Prussia, one of the conditions of which was that no peace should 
be made with Austria until she had surrendered Venetia to Italy. 
The issue of the war added this territory to the Italian kingdom. 

857. Rome becomes the Capital ( 1870 ). The Italians now 
looked forward impatiently to the time when Rome, the ancient 
mistress of the peninsula, should be their capital. The power of 
the Pope, however, was upheld by the French, and this made it 
impossible for the Italians to have their will in this matter with¬ 
out a conflict with France. But events soon gave the coveted 


§ 858] TEMPORAL POWER OF PAPACY ENDED 601 


capital to the Italian government. In 1870 came the sharp, quick 
war between France and Prussia, and the French troops at Rome 
were summoned home. The Italian government at once gave 
notice to the Pope that Rome would henceforth be considered a 
portion of the kingdom of Italy, and forthwith an Italian army 
entered the city, which by a 
vote of almost a hundred to 
one resolved to cast in its lot 
with that of the Italian nation. 

July 2, 1871, Victor Emmanuel 
himself entered Rome and took 
up his official residence there. 

Since then the Eternal City 
has been the seat of the na¬ 
tional government. 1 

853. End of the Temporal 
Power of the Papacy. The 
occupation of Rome by the 
Italian government marked 
the end of the temporal power 
of the Pope, and the end of an 
ecclesiastical state, the last in 
Europe, which from before 
Charles the Great had held 
a place among the temporal 
powers of Europe, and during 
all that period had been a po¬ 
tent factor in the political 
affairs of Italy. With the abolition of the papal sovereignty, the 
papal troops, with the exception of a few guardsmen, were dis¬ 
banded. The Vatican palace and some other buildings with their 
grounds were reserved to the Pope as a place of residence, to¬ 
gether with a yearly allowance of 3,000,000 lire (about $600,000). 



© Underwood & Underwood, N. Y. 


Fig. 142. Pope Benedict XV 
(From a photograph by Ruschin) 


1 Victor Emmanuel II died in 1878, and his son came to the throne with the title of 
Humbert I. He was assassinated in 1900, and was succeeded by his only son, \ ictor 
Emmanuel III. 





602 


THE UNIFICATION OF ITALY 


[§ 859 


These arrangements have subsisted down to the present time. 
Under them the Pope is not to be regarded as a subject of the 
Italian government but rather as a sovereign residing at Rome. 
His person is inviolable. No Italian officer may enter the Vatican 
or its grounds, which the Italian government respects the same as 
though they were foreign territory. 1 

The popes have steadily refused to recognize the legitimacy of 
the act whereby they were deprived of the temporal government of 
Rome and the Papal States, and have protested against it by 
refraining from setting foot outside the gardens of the Vatican, by 
refusing to accept the annuity provided for them, and in various 
other ways. 2 

859 . Reform and Progress. The antagonism between the 
Holy See and the Italian government, in connection with other 
hindrances, has tended to retard Italy’s progress under the new 
regime. Yet very much has been accomplished since the winning 
of independence and nationality. Brigandage, an element of the 
bad heritage from the time of servitude, oppression, and disunion, 
has been in a great degree suppressed ; railways have been built; 
the Alps have been tunneled; the healthfulness of the Campagna 
and other districts has been increased by extensive systems of 
drainage, and regions long given over to desolation have been 
made habitable and productive; the dense ignorance and the 
deep moral degradation of the masses, particularly in the southern 
parts of the peninsula, have, been in a measure overcome and 
relieved by a public system of education; and Rome has been 
rebuilt, and from the position of a mean provincial town has been 
raised to a place among the great capitals of modern Europe. 

% 

1 Just a few months before the Pope’s loss of temporal sovereignty a council of the 
Catholic Church (the Vatican Council of 1869-1870) had by a solemn vote proclaimed the 
doctrine of papal infallibility, which declares the decisions of the Pope, "when he speaks 
ex cathedra, — that is, when, in his character as Shepherd and Teacher of all Christians, 
and in virtue of his supreme apostolic authority, he lays down that a certain doctrine 
concerning faith or morals is binding upon the universal Church,” —to be infallible. 

2 Pius IX died in 1878 and was followed in the pontificate by Leo XIII, who died 
July 20, 1903, at the patriarchal age of ninety-three, after having won a place among the 
greatest and the best of the popes. He was succeeded by Pius X, who died in 1914 and 
was followed by Benedict XV. Upon Benedict’s death in 1922 Pius XI succeeded. 


§ 859] 


REFERENCES 


603 

As to the progress made since the French Revolution in the 
development of the sentiment of nationality, a comparatively re¬ 
cent disaster furnishes a milestone by which to measure advance. 
In 1902 the great historic campanile which dominated St. Mark’s 
in Venice fell in a pathetic heap of ruins. Every city of the 
peninsula, says a chronicler of the event, mourned just as if the 
tower had been its own,—•" and then they opened a subscription.” 
Had the catastrophe happened a few generations earlier Venice 
would have had to restore her own bell tower ; but Italy is today a 
Nation, and the misfortune which befalls any Italian city afflicts 
all alike. 1 

In 1915 Italy was drawn into the maelstrom of the World War 
then raging, so that here her story properly becomes a part of 
the story of that tremendous struggle. 

References. Probyn, J. W., Italy: from the Fall of Adpoleon /, in 1815, to 
the Year 1890, and Stillman, W. J., The Union of Italy , 1815-1895. (The first 
of these affords the best short account for young readers ; the second is the 
best for a careful study.) Martinengo Cesaresco, The Liberation of Italy. 
1815-1870 \ also by the same writer, Cavour. Thayer, W. R., The Dawn of 
Italian Independence , 2 vols. Mazade, Charles de, Life of Cavour. Dicey, E., 
Victor Emmanuel. King, t>., Mazzim. 

1 In 1908 the most destructive earthquake that has visited Europe since the Lisbon 
earthquake of 1755 occurred in Calabria and Sicily, resulting in the estimated loss of 
over 70,000 lives. The Sicilian city of Messina was wholly destroyed, a great part of its 
inhabitants being buried in its ruins. 


CHAPTER LXXII 


THE MAKING OF THE NEW GERMAN EMPIRE 

860 . Formation of the German Confederation (isi 5 ). The 
creation of the new German Empire was the most important 
matter in the nineteenth-century history of Europe, although it 
was not until illumined by later events that the fateful significance 
of the rise of this new state among the European states was dis¬ 
cerned even by the most far-seeing statesmen. The story of the 
making of this new nation and imperial power, so far as it will be 
narrated in the present chapter, begins with the Congress of 
Vienna (sect. 812). That body reorganized Germany as a Con¬ 
federation, with the Emperor of Austria as President of the 
league. The union consisted of the Austrian Empire and the four 
kingdoms of Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony, and Wiirtemberg, besides 
various principalities and free cities—in all, thirty-nine states. 
A Diet formed of delegates from the several states, and sitting at 
Frankfort-on-the-Main, was to settle all questions of dispute aris¬ 
ing between members of the Confederation, and to determine 
matters of general concern. 

The articles of union, in a spirit of concession to the growing 
sentiment of the times, provided that all sects of Christians should 
enjoy equal toleration, and that every state should establish a 
representative form of government. 

861 . Defects and Weaknesses of the Confederation. The 
ties uniting the various states of this Confederation could hardly 
have been more lax. In this respect the league resembled that first 
formed by the American states under the Articles of Confedera¬ 
tion. One chief defect of the constitution of the league lurked in 
the provisions concerning the Federal Diet. The unwillingness of 
the several states to surrender any part of their sovereignty had 
led to the insertion of the rule that no measure of first importance 

604 


§ 862] THE GERMAN CONFEDERATION 605 

should be adopted by the Diet save by a unanimous vote. The 
inevitable result of this provision was that no measure of first 
importance was ever passed by the assembly, which became 
throughout Europe a byword for hopeless inefficiency. 

Another defect in the federal government was that, as in the 
case of the American Federation, there existed no effective 
machinery for carrying out the acts of the Federal Diet. These 
amounted practically to nothing more than recommendations to 
the rulers of the several states, who paid no heed whatsoever to 
them unless they chanced to be in line with their own policies 
or inclinations. 

But what contributed more than all else to render the federal 
scheme wholly unworkable was the presence in the league of two 
powerful and mutually jealous states, Austria and Prussia, neither 
of which was willing that the other should have predominance in 
the affairs of the Confederation. Of these two rival states Prussia, 
though at first she yielded nominal precedence to Austria, which 
had a great past and enjoyed a vast prestige at the European 
courts, was in reality the stronger state. Her strength lay par¬ 
ticularly in the homogeneous, essentially German, character of 
her population. Austria was inherently weak because of the 
mixed non-German character of most of the territories that had 
been gradually united under the rule of the Hapsburgs. The 
greater part of their lands lay outside of the German Confeder¬ 
ation and contained nearly twenty-five million Slavs, Magyars, 
Italians, and other non-German subjects. 

This difference in the character of the populations of Prussia 
and the Austrian Empire foreshadowed their divergent destinies,— 
foreshadowed that Austria should lose and that Prussia should 
gain the leadership in German affairs. 

862. The Dual Movement toward Freedom and Union. 
For a half century after the Congress of Vienna the history of 
Germany is the history of a dual movement, or perhaps it would 
be better to say two movements, one democratic and the other 
national in character. The aim of the first movement was the 
establishment of representative government in the different states 


6 o6 


THE NEW GERMAN EMPIRE 


[§ 863 


of the Confederation; the aim of the second was German unity. 
These movements were essentially the same as those which we 
have seen creating in the Italian peninsula a free and united Italy. 
By what methods they were carried on here in Germany and in 
what measure their aims were attained will appear in the following 
pages. 

863. The Revolutions of 1830: Some Gains for Constitu¬ 
tional Government. There were a few liberal-minded princes 
among the German rulers; but in general the faces of these princes 
were turned toward the past. They opposed all changes that would 
give the people any part in the government, and clung to the old 
order of things. We have seen what were the consequences of 
the reactionary policy of the Bourbons in France and of the 
despots in Italy. Events ran exactly the same course in Germany. 
When the news of the July Revolution in Paris (sect. 817) spread 
beyond the Rhine, a sympathetic thrill shot through Germany, 
and in places the Liberal party made threatening demonstrations 
against their reactionary rulers. In several of the minor states 
constitutions were granted. Thus a little was gained for free 
political institutions, though after the flutter of the revolutionary 
years the princes again took up their reactionary policy, and 
under the influence of Metternich did all in their power to 
check the popular movement and to keep governmental matters 
out of the hands of the people. In some instances the con¬ 
stitutions already granted were annulled or their articles were 
disregarded. 

864. Formation of the Customs Union; First Step toward 
German Unity ( 1828 - 1836 ). It was just at this revolutionary 
epoch that the first step was taken in the formation of a real 
German nation through the creation of what is known as the 
Customs Union. This was a sort of commercial treaty binding 
those states that became parties to it—by the year 1836 almost 
all the states of the Confederation save Austria had become mem¬ 
bers of the league — to adopt among themselves the policy of 
free trade; that is, there were to be no duties levied on goods 
passing from one state of the Union to another belonging to it. 


§ 865] THE UPRISINGS OF 1848 607 

The greatest good resulting from the Union was that it taught 
the people to think of a more perfect national union. And as 
Prussia was the promoter of the trade confederation, it accus¬ 
tomed the smaller states to look to her as their head and chief. 

865. The Uprisings of 1848; Fateful Consequences of the 
Failure of the Liberal Movement. In 1848 news flew across the 
Rhine of the uprising in France against the reactionary govern¬ 
ment of Louis Philippe. The intelligence kindled a flame of 
excitement throughout Germany. The Liberals everywhere arose 
and demanded constitutional government. Especially in Austria 
did affairs assume a most threatening aspect. 1 Metternich was 
obliged to flee the country, so intense was the feeling against him. 
The Emperor Ferdinand I abdicated in favor of his nephew 
Francis Joseph, who granted the people a constitution. 

At the Prussian capital Berlin there was serious fighting in the 
streets between the people and the soldiers, and the excitement 
was not quieted until the king, Frederick William IV, assured 
the people that their demands for constitutional government 
should be granted. In fulfillment of this promise the king granted 
a constitution, which provided for a parliament of two chambers, 
and took an oath to rule in accord with its provisions (1850). 

Thus the Revolution of 1848-1849 seemed on the whole to have 
secured distinct gains for popular government in Germany. These 
gains, however, proved to be either impermanent or illusive. 
After the excitement of the revolutionary movement had passed 
away, many of the lesser princes annulled wholly or in part the 
constitutions they had granted. The Austrian constitution was 
withdrawn in 1851. The Prussian constitution was so framed as 
to leave Prussia, though now in form a constitutional state, still 
in reality an absolute instead of a limited monarchy. 2 In 1856 the 

1 The most serious trouble was in Hungary. JLed by the distinguished statesman and 
orator Louis Kossuth, the Hungarians rose in revolt and declared their independence 
of the Austrian crown (April 14, 1849). They made a noble fight for freedom, but were 
overpowered by the united Austrian and Russian armies. 

2 The grant of universal suffrage was rendered futile by an astutely devised electoral 
system based on property, known as the three-class system of voting, which gave the 
small wealthy class, always zealous supporters of the pretensions of the Crown, more 
than half of the seats in the lower house of the national assembly (the Landtag). 


6o8 


THE NEW GERMAN EMPIRE 


[§ 866 


Hohenzollern Frederick William, who had granted the constitution, 
was a plaintiff in a Missouri court (U. S.). In the statement of 
his case he makes the following declaration of his status as king 
of Prussia: "The plaintiff states that he is absolute monarch of 
the kingdom of Prussia, and as king thereof is the sole government 
of that country; that he is unrestrained by any constitution or 
law, and that his will, expressed in due form, is the only law 
of that country, and is the only legal power there known to exist 
as law.” 1 

The failure of the democratic movement of the revolutionary 
years 1848-1849 and the virtual triumph of autocracy in Prussia 
and Austria had momentous consequences for Europe. 2 It created 
a fatal schism and left the continent — half democratic, half auto¬ 
cratic— a house divided against itself. This cleavage foreshadowed 
the great tragedy which overwhelmed Europe in 1914. 

866. Bismarck, the Unifier of Germany. In the year 1861 
Frederick William IV of Prussia died, and his brother, already an 
old man of sixty-three yet destined to be for almost a generation 
the central figure in the movement for German unity, came to the 
Prussian throne as William I. He soon called to his side Otto 
von Bismarck as Premier and Minister of Foreign Affairs. Bis¬ 
marck was a man of great genius, but he was autocratic in his 
ideas and methods, and—as revealed especially in his Reminis¬ 
cences, dictated by himself after his dismissal from office by Em¬ 
peror William II — thoroughly unscrupulous. His appearance at 
the head of the Prussian government marks an epoch in history. 

Bismarck held that it was Prussia’s mission to effect the uni¬ 
fication of the German Fatherland. This work he was convinced 

1 King of Prussia v. Kuepper’s Admr., 22 Missouri Reports (1856), p. 550; quoted 
by Scott, A Survey of International Relations between the United States and Germany 
(1917), p. xlii. 

2 The failure of the liberal constitutional movement in the separate German states 
was rendered more complete by the failure at this same time of the movement to bind 
the various states in a closer national union with a genuinely liberal constitution. To 
this end there had met in Frankfort, May 18, 1848, an assembly, like the Constituent 
Assembly of 1789 in France, charged with the duty of framing a national constitution 
for Germany. Unfortunately nothing was accomplished by the meeting. This made 
hopeless the outlook for liberalism in Germany. Many of the leaders of the popular 
movement found in America an asylum from the tyranny at home. 


§ 867] 


BISMARCK 


609 


could be accomplished only through the Prussian royal house. 
He believed that to allow the royal power in Prussia to be re¬ 
duced to the condition of the royal power in England would 
be to destroy the sole instrument by means of which German 
unity could be wrought out. This conviction determined Bis¬ 
marck’s attitude toward the Prussian Parliament when it came 
in conflict with the royal power. He flouted it and trampled it 
under foot. He was known as the " Parliament tamer.” Naturally 
he was distrusted and hated by the Liberals. 

As to the vexed question between Austria and Prussia, Bismarck 
had a fixed idea as to how that should be settled,—" by blood and 
iron.” Austria’s power and influence must be destroyed and she 
herself forcibly expelled from Germany before the German states 
could be remolded into a real national union. 

867 . The Reform of the Prussian Army; Bismarck’s Con¬ 
flict with the Prussian Parliament. It had been King William’s 
policy to reform and strengthen the Prussian army. He had 
selected Bismarck as his prime minister because he knew he 
would carry out this policy in the face of the opposition of the 
Prussian House of Representatives. That body would not vote 
the necessary taxes. Bismarck held that it was their duty to 
make the necessary appropriations for the army, and when they 
persisted in withholding grants of money he, backed by his 
sovereign and the House of Peers, raised without parliamentary 
sanction what money he needed for his army reforms. 

It was a bold and dangerous procedure, and has been likened 
to that followed by Charles I and Strafford in England. For¬ 
tunately for King William and his imperious minister the policy 
proved highly successful, issuing in Prussia’s military predomi¬ 
nance in Germany and in German unity,— and the "Parliament 
tamer” and his master escaped the fate of the English king 
and his minister. 

But there were remote evil results of Bismarck’s action which 
no one at that time could have foreseen. It fixed definitely the 
autocratic character of German Imperialism, which was to be¬ 
come the scourge of Europe; for when a little later the German 


610 THE NEW GERMAN EMPIRE [§868 

Empire was established, it was this Prussian system of government 
that was the pattern after which the Imperial Government was 
molded. 

868. The Danish War (i 864 ). The weapon which Bismarck 
had forged was used in three wars. The first of these, the 
Schleswig-Holstein, or Danish, War, grew out of rival Danish and 
German claims to two duchies attached to the kingdom of Den¬ 
mark. The dispute, adroitly handled by Bismarck, soon led to a 
declaration of war by Prussia and Austria against the little Danish 
kingdom. Denmark was, of course, quickly overpowered and 
forced to resign her claim to the duchies. 

Straightway the duchies became a bone of contention between 
Austria and Prussia. Bismarck was bent on annexing them to 
Prussia, since they would be a most valuable possession for her 
as a prospective sea power, giving her as they would the harbor 
of Kiel and control of a proposed canal uniting the Baltic and 
the North Sea. Austria was determined that her rival should not 
get them unless she received compensation in some form,— a bit 
of Silesia, and the promise of Prussia’s help in case she had. 
difficulty with her troublesome non-German provinces. 

There was endless controversy over the matter. Bismarck 
realized that Prussia could secure the coveted prize only through 
war with Austria, and to this extreme he was ready to go since 
a war would settle not only the question respecting the owner¬ 
ship of the duchies but also the larger question as to Austrian 
or Prussian predominance in Germany. The hopelessly entangled 
Gordian knot was to be cut by the sword, v 

869 . The Austro-Prussian, or Seven Weeks’, War (i866). 
Both Austria and Prussia began to arm. Bismarck secured the 
neutrality of France by permitting the Emperor Napoleon to 
believe that if Prussia secured additional territory by the war, 
France would be allowed to appropriate Belgium or some Rhenish 
lands as a compensation. 

He also made a ready ally of Italy by engaging that in the 
event of a successful issue of the war the new Italian kingdom 
should in return for its alliance receive Venetia (sect. 856). Bids 


§ 870 ] THE NORTH GERMAN CONFEDERATION 6n 


in the form of various proposals and promises were also made 
by Bismarck for the alliance of the smaller German states; but 
almost all ranged themselves on the side of Austria, so that in 
spite of the Italian alliance it seemed like an unequal contest 
into which Prussia was venturing, since her population was not 
more than a third of that of the states which were likely to be 
arrayed against her. 

The war began in the early summer of 1866. On the 3d of 
July of that year was fought the great battle of Sadowa, or Kdnig- 
gratz, in Bohemia. It was Austria’s Waterloo. The Prussians 
pushing on toward Vienna, the Emperor Francis Joseph was 
constrained to sue for peace, and on the 23d of August the Treaty 
of Prague was signed. 1 

The long debate between Austria and Prussia was over. By 
the terms of the treaty Austria consented to the dissolution of 
the old German Confederation and agreed to allow Prussia to 
reorganize the German states as she might wish. At the same 
time she surrendered Venetia to the Italian kingdom. The hin¬ 
drances she had so long placed in the way both of German and 
of Italian unity were now finally removed. 

870 . Establishment of the North German Confederation 
( 1867 ). Now quickly followed the reorganization, under the 
presidency of Prussia, of the German states north of the Main 
into what was called the North German Confederation. There 
were twenty-one states in all, reckoning the three free cities of 
Hamburg, Bremen, and Liibeck. The domains of Prussia were 
enlarged by the annexation of Hanover, Hesse-Cassel, Nassau, 
the free city Frankfort, and the duchies of Schleswig and Hol¬ 
stein. These annexations gave the Prussian king nearly five mil¬ 
lion new subjects and united into a fairly compact dominion his 
heretofore severed and scattered territories. 

A constitution was adopted which provided that all matters 
of common concern should be committed to a Federal Parliament, 

1 The fear of French intervention hastened the negotiations on the part of the 
Prussian court. Since the Emperor Napoleon as the price of his consent to Italian unity 
had received Savoy and Nice (sect. 853), so now he thought to wring from Germany 
some Rhine lands as the price of his consent to German unity. 


6 l2 


THE NEW GERMAN EMPIRE 


[§871 


or Diet, the members of the lower house of which were to be 
chosen by universal suffrage. The Prussian king was to be the 
hereditary executive of the Confederation, and the commander-in¬ 
chief of all the military forces of the several states composing 
the league. 

Thus was a long step taken toward German unity. But there 
still remained much to be desired. The states to the south of the 
Main — Baden, Bavaria, Wiirtemberg, and Hesse-Darmstadt — 
were yet wanting to bring to completion the unification of the 
Fatherland. 

871 . The Franco-Prussian War (i 87 o-i 87 i) and the Proc¬ 
lamation of the New German Empire. There were two obstacles 
in the way of the completion of the union. First, the South Ger¬ 
man states were averse to entering a confederation dominated 
by Prussia. Second, there was the opposition of the imperial and 
military French party, who viewed with ill-concealed jealousy 
the rise of this new Prussian power that threatened to push France 
from her historic position as arbiter of continental Europe. All 
France’s traditional jealousy of the House of Hapsburg was now 
transferred to the rising House of Hohenzollern. 

The means which Bismarck used to remove the reluctance of 
the southern states to join the Confederation, and to overcome 
French opposition to the consummation of German unity under 
Prussian headship, were a deliberately provoked war with France. 
The situation of which he took advantage to bring about the war 
was this: In 1869 the Spanish throne became vacant. It was 
offered to Leopold, a member of the Hohenzollern family. Ta 
the French Emperor Napoleon III this appeared to be a scheme 
on the part of the House of Hohenzollern to unite the interests 
of Prussia and Spain, just as Austria and Spain were united, 
with such disastrous consequences to the peace of Europe, under 
the princes of the House of Hapsburg. Even after Leopold, to 
avoid displeasing France, had declined the proffered crown, the 
Emperor Napoleon demanded of King William assurance that 
no member of the House of Hohenzollern should ever with his 
consent become a candidate for the Spanish throne. 


§871] 


THE FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR 


613 


This demand was made of King William by the French am¬ 
bassador Benedetti at the little watering place of Ems. The king 
courteously refused the demand and then sent a telegram to 
Bismarck informing him of what had occurred, at the same time 
giving him permission to make such use of the message as he saw 
fit. Bismarck edited the telegram in such a way as to make it 
appear to the French that their ambassador had been insulted 
and rudely dismissed by King William, and to the Germans that 
the French government had in an arrogant manner insisted upon 
an impossible demand. Then he gave out the falsified telegram 
for publication. War was now inevitable. 1 

The astonishing successes of the German armies on French soil 
(sect. 820) created among Germans everywhere such patriotic 
pride that all the obstacles which had hitherto prevented any¬ 
thing more than a partial union of the members of the Germanic 
body were now swept out of the way by an irresistible tide of 
national sentiment. While the siege of Paris was progressing, 
commissioners were sent by the southern states to Versailles, the 
headquarters of King William, to represent-to him that they 
were ready and anxious to enter the North German union. Ihus, 
in rapid succession Baden, Hesse, Wiirtemberg, and Bavaria 
were received into the Confederation, the name of which was now 
changed to that of the German Confederation. 

Scarcely was this accomplished when, upon the suggestion of 
the king of Bavaria,—who had been coached by Bismarck,— 
King William, who now bore the title of President of the Con¬ 
federation, was given the title of German Emperor , which honor 
was to be hereditary in his family. On the 18th of January, 1871, 
within the Palace of Versailles, amidst great enthusiasm the im¬ 
perial dignity was formally conferred upon King William, and 
Germany became a federated Empire. 2 

1 Bismarck had further inflamed German feeling against the French government by 
making public Napoleon’s request for Hesse and Rhenish Bavaria at the time of the 
Austro-Prussian War. These revelations had created a tremendous sentiment against 
France not only in the South German states but throughout all Germany. 

2 For the essential provisions of the Treaty of Frankfort (1871) which ended the 

war, see sect. 821. 


614 


THE NEW GERMAN EMPIRE 


[§ 872 


872 . Character of the Imperial Constitution. The Empire 
received a constitution. Though seemingly liberal, its articles 
were so adroitly drawn as to conceal the real absolutism of the 
government created. It provided for a parliament or legislature 
comprising two bodies, a Federal Council ( Bundesrat ) and an 
Imperial Diet {Reichstag ). The Federal Council, which formed 
the upper chamber of the legislature, was composed of sixty-one 
members, who were appointed by the princes of the federated 
states. Of the whole number of delegates the Emperor, as king of 
Prussia, appointed seventeen. The members of the Council voted 
as instructed by the governments or rulers whom they represented. 

The Imperial Diet, which formed the lower chamber of the 
legislature, comprised about four hundred members elected by 
practically universal manhood suffrage. The original apportion¬ 
ment was one member for every twenty thousand of the popu¬ 
lation of the federated states. 

We have here the forms of a constitutional parliamentary gov¬ 
ernment. These forms, however, as we have said, merely masked 
the practically absolute powers of the Emperor. As the one who 
appointed and controlled the vote of the seventeen Prussian mem¬ 
bers of the Federal Council (in addition to these he also controlled 
the vote of the three delegates representing the imperial province 
of Alsace-Lorraine), he dominated that body. On all really vital 
matters it merely registered his will. 

As to the apparent powers of the Diet, there were provisions 
of the constitution which rendered these wholly illusory and left 
to this body nothing more than the semblance of authority. It 
had, it is true, the right to originate bills, though as a matter of 
fact most bills, and particularly the important ones, were framed 
by the Federal Council; but this right signified very, little, since 
the Federal Council might veto any measure, and this veto could 
be overcome in no possible constitutional way. 


1 The Empire consisted of twenty-six states, counting the imperial territory of Alsace- 
Lorraine. An outstanding fact of the Union was the preponderance of Prussia. The 
census of 1910 gave the population of Prussia as 40,165.219; that of all the other states 
as 24,760,770. 


§ 873 ] BISMARCK AS IMPERIAL CHANCELLOR 


6i5 


Then, again, the Diet could be dissolved at any time by the 
Federal Council, which meant virtually by the Emperor. When¬ 
ever it refused to act in accord with the imperial will, its members 
were sent home and a new election ordered, and by this means a 
new and usually more tractable body was secured. 

Furthermore, the Diet had no part in shaping the policies of 
the government nor any control over the administration of affairs. 
The Imperial Chancellor, who corresponded in his position in the 
government to the British Premier, was responsible not to the 
Diet but to the Emperor, who appointed and dismissed him at 
will. He could disregard with impunity and treat with contempt 
a vote of lack of confidence by that body, so long as his master, 
the Emperor, supported him. 

Finally, the Diet had practically no control over matters of 
war and peace. The Emperor could declare a defensive war with¬ 
out the advice or consent of that body, and since the Imperial 
Government did not scruple to falsify the truth and proclaim a 
purely offensive war as a defensive one, the Diet was without 
power or authority in this important domain. 1 

These various provisions of the constitution left to the Diet 
merely the shadow of power and authority, and made it, what it 
has been called, little more than an official debating club. Thus 
the constitution given the Empire by Bismarck, instead of creat¬ 
ing a truly representative parliamentary government, created (or 
rather perpetuated) "an autocratic system of government adorned 
with a democratic fagade.” 

873 . Bismarck as Imperial Chancellor; the Triple Alliance. 

For nearly twenty years after the close of the Franco-Prussian 
War the affairs of the new Empire were directed by Bismarck 
as the first Imperial Chancellor. In his foreign policy, which 
alone we can notice here, Bismarck’s greatest achievement was 
the formation of what is known as the Triple Alliance ( Dreibund ) 


1 Thus the war of 1914, though it was a war of criminal aggression on the part of 
Germany, was proclaimed by the Emperor as a war in defense of the 1 -atherland, and 
was started by him and his military advisers, the Reichstag not being officially informed 
of the beginning of hostilities till four days later. 


6 i6 


THE NEW GERMAN EMPIRE 


[§ 874 


between the German Empire, Austria-Hungary, and Italy. 1 This 
compact, in its inception and as designed by Bismarck, was a 
defensive alliance against Russia and France. The creation of 
this alliance was one of the most significant matters in the history 
of the closing years of the nineteenth century. For a decade and 
more the alliance was a force making for the peace of Europe, 
but later, with growing Prussian predominance and arrogance, it 
became a menace to the freedom and independence of neigh¬ 
boring states, and thus a decisive factor in bringing on the great 
World War. 

874 . Germany under Emperor William II up to the World 
War. In 1888 Emperor William I died at the venerable age of 
ninety-one. He was followed by his son Frederick, who at the 
time of his accession was suffering from a fatal malady. He died 
after a short reign of three months, and his son came to the 
throne as Emperor William II (1888). 

It was generally thought that the young sovereign — he was 
twenty-nine years of age—would be completely under the in¬ 
fluence of Bismarck. But soon the Emperor disclosed a very 
imperious will of his own. His relations with Bismarck became 
strained and the aged Chancellor was brusquely dismissed. 2 Many 
felt that the youthful Emperor had treated the creator of the 
Empire and the maker of the imperial fortunes of the House of 
Hohenzollern with gross ingratitude. After his dismissal of Bis¬ 
marck, the Emperor’s rule was a very personal one. 

The wonderful commercial and industrial development of Ger¬ 
many, and the remarkable growth, in spite of the bitter opposition 
of the government, of the party known as the Social Democrats, 3 
who advocated an extreme programme of social and industrial 

1 The beginning of the alliance was a pact between Germany and Austria-Hungary 
in 1879; it was completed by the adhesion of Italy in 18S2. 

2 March 18, 1890. In his retirement at Friedrichsruh, an estate which was a gift to 
him from the grateful Emperor William I, Bismarck played the part of a "German 
I rometheus. He hurled defiance at all his enemies, and did not scruple to subject 
the policies of the Emperor and his ministers to the most caustic criticism. The ex- 
Chancellor died in 1898, being in his eighty-fourth year. 

3 In 1871 this party cast a vote of about 124,000 ; in 1903 the vote was over 2,911,000 ; 
and in 1912 it rose to 4,250,399. 


§ 875] 


AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AFTER 1866 


617 


reform and more democratic methods in government, are two of 
the most noteworthy facts in the domestic history of the Empire 
before the opening of the tremendous conflict of 1914. 

An outstanding feature of the foreign policy of William II 
was his cultivation of the friendship of the Sultan of Turkey. 
His purpose here was to secure from the Ottoman government 
privileges for German traders and settlers in Asiatic Turkey, and 
especially concessions for a German-built railway running from 
Constantinople to Bagdad and the Persian Gulf. But these mat¬ 
ters are related to the ambitious scheme of the Emperor and the 
Prussian ruling caste for world domination, and of this as the 
fundamental cause of the World War we shall find it more con¬ 
venient to speak in another connection. 


875 . Austria-Hungary after 1866 . The disaster of Sadowa 
did in a measure for Austria what the disaster of Jena did for 
Prussia (sect. 807),— brought about its political reorganization. 

The first step and the most important one in the process of 
reorganization was the recognition by the Austrian court of the 
claims of the Magyars to the right of equality in the monarchy 
with the hitherto dominant German race. By an agreement 
known as the Ausgleich , or Compromise, the relations of Austria 
and Hungary in the reconstituted state were defined and regu¬ 
lated. It provided for the division of the old empire into two 
parts, designated as the Austrian Empire and the Hungarian 
Kingdom. 1 Each state was to have its own parliament, the one 
sitting at Vienna and the other at Budapest, and each was to have 
complete control of its own internal affairs. Neither was to have 
the least precedence over the other. 

The common interests of the two states—those embracing for¬ 
eign affairs, the army, and finances —were to be regulated by a 
third peculiar body, the so-called " Delegations, 1 ” composed of sixty 
delegates from each of the other two parliaments. The hereditary 
head of the Austrian state was to be also the constitutional 

1 The official designation of the dual state was the Austro-IIungarian Monarchy. 



6i8 


THE NEW GERMAN EMPIRE 


[§ 875 


king of Hungary. This celebrated compact was duly ratified 
by the parliaments of Hungary and Austria, and the long 
struggle between the Magyars and the House of Hapsburg was 
virtually at an end. At the same time that the Compromise was 
arranged, the Austrian division of the monarchy was given a 
liberal constitution and the Hungarian constitution, suspended in 
1848* was restored. From this time forward until its break-up 
in 1918, Austria-Hungary was in form and theory a constitutional, 
parliamentary state; but the government remained in temper 
and spirit, and largely in practice, an autocratic despotism. 

The Compromise, it will be noted, made no recognition what¬ 
soever of the historic rights and liberties of the other races or 
nationalities of the monarchy, of which there were many. Thus, 
in the eastern half of the monarchy the Magyars, who formed less 
than one half of the population of the Hungarian kingdom, 1 were 
holding all the non-Magyar races of the kingdom—with the ex¬ 
ception of the Slavs of Croatia, who had secured some measure 
of self-government—in just such political serfdom as they them¬ 
selves were subjected to before their emancipation by the events 
of 1866-1867. 

It was the same in the other half of the monarchy. There 
a German minority 2 was holding the Czechs in Bohemia and the 
Poles in Galicia in a state of subjection similar to that in which 
the Magyars were holding the non-Magyar races of Hungary. 

Now these dependent nationalities claimed that they had as good 
a right to self-government as had either the Germans or the Mag¬ 
yars. It was easy to forecast that, if these contentions did not end 
in the recognition by the two dominant races of the justice of 
the claims of these dependent peoples, and the conversion of the 
dual monarchy into a federal union in which the various racial 
groups should enjoy equality of rights and privileges, then the 
only possible outcome of the situation would be the disruption 
of the monarchy—probably in some time of stress and strain. 

1 The census of 1910 gave the total number of inhabitants of Hungary as 20,886,487, 
of whom only 10,050,575 were returned as being of Hungarian speech. 

2 The total population of Austria according to the census of 1910 was 28,571,934; 
the number of Germans (on basis of language), 9,950,266. 



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§ 875] 


REFERENCES 


619 

The affairs of Austria-Hungary were almost as much a matter 
of European concern as were those of the Ottoman Empire. This 
was so for the reason that most of the dependent ethnic groups 
within the monarchy were merely detached areas of larger bodies 
of kindred peoples in adjoining lands, and because there was a 
tendency in these small groups to gravitate toward the larger 
masses of their kin in these neighboring countries. Thus the 
Italians in Trieste and the Tyrol were drawn toward the Italian 
kingdom; the Rumanians of Transylvania toward the principality 
of Rumania; the Slavs of the south toward the Slav state of 
Serbia. In a later chapter we shall learn how these racial prob¬ 
lems became a contributory cause of the World War and a 
determining factor in its issues in so far as these involved the 
fate of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. 

References. Sybel, H. Von, The Founding of the German Empire, 7 vols. 
Andrews, C. M., The Historical Development of Modern Europe, vol. i, chaps, 
vi, ix, and x; vol. ii, chaps, v and vi-xii. Henderson, E. F., A Short History 
of Germany, vol. ii, chaps, viii-x. Lowe, C., Prince Bismarck and The German 
Emperor, William II. Headlam, J. W., Bismarck and the Founding of the 
German Empire. Busch, M., Our Chancellor. Lowell, A. L., Governments and 
Parties in Continental Europe, vol. i, chaps, v and vi; vol. ii, chaps, vii-x. 
Coolidge, A. C., Origins of the Triple Alliance. Marriott, J. A. R., and 
Robertson, C. A., The Evolution of Prussia, chaps, viii-xiv. Hazen, C. D., 
Modern European History, chaps, xix-xxi, xxiv. 


CHAPTER LXXIII 


RUSSIA FROM THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA TO 
THE WORLD WAR 

( 1815 - 1914 ) 

876 . Preliminary Statement. The story of Russia since the 
fall of Napoleon is crowded with matters of great moment and 
interest. We can, however, in the present chapter, speak very 
briefly of only three things,—her part in the dismemberment of 
the Ottoman Empire, the emancipation of her serfs, and the 
liberal movement. In later chapters we shall find place to say 
something of Russia in Asia and of her part in the World War. 

I. RUSSIA’S WARS AGAINST TURKEY AND HER ALLIES 

877 . The Russo-Turkish War of 1828 - 1829 . In the course 
of the nineteenth century Russia waged three wars against the 
Ottoman Porte, which resulted in the expulsion of the Turks from 
a large part of their conquests in Europe. But the jealousy of 
the other great powers of Europe prevented Russia from appro¬ 
priating the fruits of her victories, so that the outcome of her 
efforts was the establishment of a number of independent, or prac¬ 
tically independent, Christian principalities on the land recovered. 

The first of these wars began in 1828. In that year, taking 
advantage of the embarrassment of the Sultan through a stubborn 
insurrection in Greece, 1 Tsar Nicholas 2 declared war against the 

1 This was the struggle known as the War of Greek Independence (1821-1829). 
This war was a phase of the liberal and national movement which in the revolutionary 
year of 1821 agitated the Italian and Iberian peninsulas. Lord Byron devoted his life 
and fortune to the cause of Greek freedom. He died of fever at the siege of Missolonghi 
(1824). England, France, and Russia finally intervened. The Turko-Egyptian fleet was 
destroyed by the fleets of the allies in the bay of Navarino (1827). The year after this 
event began the Russian campaign in the Danubian provinces, as narrated in the text. 

2 Tsars of the nineteenth century and after: Alexander I, 1801-1S25 ; Nicholas I, 
1825-1855; Alexander 11 ,1855-1881 ; Alexander 11 1, 1SS1-1894; Nicholas II (deposed 
and murdered), 1894-1917. 

620 


§ 878] 


THE CRIMEAN WAR 


621 


Ottoman Porte. The Russian troops crossed the Balkans with¬ 
out serious opposition, and were marching upon Constantinople 
when the Sultan sued for peace. The Treaty of Adrianople 
brought the war to a close (1829). 

The Turkish provinces of Moldavia and Wallachia (now 
Rumania) were rendered virtually independent of the Sultan. 
All Greece south of Thessaly and Epirus was liberated, and along 
with most of the islands of the ^Egean was formed into an inde¬ 
pendent kingdom under the joint guardianship of England, France, 
and Russia. Prince Otto of Bavaria accepted the crown, and 
became the first king of the little Hellenic state 1 (1832). 

878 . The Crimean War (i 853 -i 856 ). A celebrated parable 
employed by the Tsar Nicholas in conversation with the British 
minister at St. Petersburg throws a good deal of light upon the 
circumstances that led to the Crimean War. 'We have on our 
hands,” said the Tsar, "a sick man — a very sick man; it would 
be a great misfortune if he should give us the slip some of these 
days, especially if it happened before all the necessary arrange¬ 
ments were made.” Nicholas thereupon proposed that England 
and Russia should divide the estate of the " sick man,” by which 
phrase Turkey of course was meant. England was to be allowed 
to take Egypt and Crete, while the Turkish provinces in Europe 
were to be taken under the protection of the Tsar. 

A pretense for hastening the dissolution of the sick man was not 
long wanting. A quarrel between the Greek and Latin Christians 
at Jerusalem was made the ground by Nicholas for demanding of 
the Sultan the recognition of a Russian protectorate over all Greek 

l In 1864 the little kingdom was enlarged through the cession to it of the Ionian 
Islands by England, in whose hands they had been since the Congress of Vienna. In 
1881 it received Thessaly and a part of Epirus by cession from Turkey, but in 1897, as 
the result of an unfortunate war with the Sultan, was forced to accede to a treaty which 
gave back to the Ottoman Porte a strip of northern Thessaly. As a result of the Balkan 
Wars (sect. 931), it received additional territory on the mainland together with a number 
of yEgean islands. Under the regime of freedom, substantial progress was made prior 
to the war of 1914. The population of the little kingdom rose from 612,000 in 1832 to 
about 4,800,000 (estimated for old and new territory) in 1913. Industry, trade, and 
commerce revived. The Isthmus of Corinth was pierced by a canal. Railroads were 
built. Athens took on the appearance of a modern capital. Its two universities in 1912 
had an attendance of over 3000 students. 


622 RUSSIA AFTER THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA [§879 


Christians in the Ottoman dominions. The demand was rejected, 
and Nicholas prepared for war. The Sultan appealed to the 
Western powers for help. England and France responded to the 
appeal, and later Sardinia joined her forces to theirs (sect. 852). 

The main interest of the struggle centered about Sevastopol, 
in the Crimea, Russia’s great naval and military station in the 
Black Sea. The siege of this place, which lasted eleven months, 
was one of the most memorable in history. The Russian general 
Todleben earned a great reputation through his masterly defense 
of the works. The French troops, through their dashing bravery, 
brought great fame to the emperor who had sent them to gather 
glory for his throne. The British "Light Brigade” won immor¬ 
tality in its memorable charge at Balaklava. And along with 
the story of the Light Brigade will live in British annals, 
"through the long hereafter of her speech and song,” the story of 
Florence Nightingale, whose labors in alleviating the sufferings 
of the sick and wounded in the trenches and the base hospitals 
form the most inspiring chapter in the history of humanitarian 
endeavor. 1 

The Russians were at length forced to evacuate their stronghold. 
The war was now soon brought to an end by the Treaty of Paris. 
The keynote of this treaty was the maintenance in its integrity 
of the Ottoman Empire as a barrier against Muscovite encroach¬ 
ments. Russia was given back Sevastopol, but was required to 
abandon all claims to a protectorate over any of the subjects of 
the Porte, and to agree not to raise any more fortresses on the 
Euxine nor keep upon that sea any armed ships, save what might 
be needed for police service. 2 

879 . The Russo-Turkish War of 1877 - 1878 . Anxiously as 
the Treaty of Paris had provided for the permanent settlement 
of the Eastern Question, barely twenty-two years had passed 
before it was again up before Europe. The Sultan could not or 
would not give his Christian subjects that protection which he 

1 Read Longfellow’s poem Santa Filomena. 

2 Russia repudiated this article of the treaty during the Franco-Prussian War in 1871. 
She then restored the fortresses of Sevastopol and before the opening of the war of 1914 
was maintaining a strong fleet of warships on the Black Sea. 


§ 880 ] 


THE TREATY OF BERLIN 


623 


had solemnly promised should be given. In 1876 there occurred 
in Bulgaria what are known as the "Bulgarian atrocities,”— 
massacres of Christian men, women, and children more revolting 
perhaps than any others of which history up to that time had 
made record. 

Fierce indignation was kindled throughout Europe. The Rus¬ 
sian armies were soon in motion. Kars in Asia Minor and Plevna 
in European Turkey, the latter after a memorable siege, fell into 
the hands of the Russians, and the armies of the Tsar were once 
more in full march upon Constantinople, with the prospect of 
soon ending forever Turkish rule on European soil, when England 
intervened, sent her fleet through the Dardanelles, and arrested 
the triumphant march of the Russians. 

880 . The Treaty of Berlin (i 878 ). The Treaty of Berlin, 1 the 
articles of which were arranged by the great powers, adjusted 
once more the disorganized affairs of the Sublime Porte and bol¬ 
stered up as well as was possible the "sick man.” But he lost 
a considerable part of his estate, for even his friends had no 
longer any hope either of his recovery or of his reformation. Out 
of those provinces of his dominions in Europe in which the 
Christian population was most numerous, there was created a 
group of wholly independent or half-independent states. 2 Bosnia 
and Herzegovina were given to Austria-Hungary to administer, 
but were not actually severed from the Ottoman Empire. 

The island of Cyprus, by a secret arrangement between the 
Ottoman Porte and the British government, was ceded to Eng¬ 
land " to be occupied and administered.” In return England 
guaranteed the integrity of the Sultan’s possessions in Asia. 

1 In this treaty the great powers revised the Treaty of San Stefano which Russia had 
concluded with Turkey. That treaty practically expelled the Ottoman Porte from Europe 
and created an enlarged Bulgaria, a Slavic state, at the expense of the Serbian and 
Greek races. 

2 The absolute independence of Rumania (the ancient provinces of Moldavia and 
Wallachia), Serbia, and Montenegro was formally acknowledged; Bulgaria, greatly 
reduced from the extension given it by the Treaty of San Stefano, was to enjoy self- 
government, but was to pay tribute to the Porte; Eastern Rumelia was to have a 
Christian governor, but was to remain under the dominion of the Sultan. (In 1SS5 East¬ 
ern'Rumelia united with Bulgaria.) Bessarabia, whose population was almost wholly 
Rumanian in race, was taken from Rumania and given to Russia. 


624 RUSSIA AFTER THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA [§ 881 

Turkey thus lost much of her former territory. There were, 
however, still left in Europe under the direct authority of the 
Sultan five million or more subjects of whom at least half were 
Christian in religion and non-Turkish in race. The interests of 
these peoples were thus sacrificed to the rival ambitions and 
mutual jealousies of the great powers. Time brought retribution 
for the great crime. It was the evil rule of the Turk in these 
regions — the great powers weakly allowing him to ignore all his 
promises of reform—which was one of the direct causes of the 
Balkan wars of 1912-1913, the prelude to the tragedy of 1914. 

II. THE EMANCIPATION OF THE SERFS, AND THE 

LIBERAL MOVEMENT 

881. Emancipation of the Russian Serfs (1861). The name 
of Tsar Alexander II (1855-1881) will live in history as the 
Emancipator of the forty-six millions of Russian serfs. In order 
to render intelligible what emancipation meant for the serfs, a 
word is needed respecting the * former land system in Russia, 
and the personal status of the serf. 

As to the first, the estate of the lord was divided into two parts, 
the smaller of which was reserved by the proprietor for his own 
use, the larger being allotted to his serfs, who formed a village 
community known as the Mir} 

Besides working the village lands, the fruits of which were 
enjoyed by the serfs, the villagers were obliged to till the lands 
of the lord, three days in a week being the usual service required. 
The serfs were personally subject to the lord to the extent that he 
might flog them in case of disobedience, but he could not sell them 
individually as slaves are sold; yet when he sold his estate the 
whole community of serfs passed with it to the new proprietor. 

1 This social and economic group affords the key to much of the history of the Russian 
people. It is the Russian counterpart of the village of serfs on the mediaeval manor of 
western Europe. It is a cluster of a dozen or perhaps a hundred families, — a clan settled 
down to agricultural life. At the time of Peter the Great ninety-nine out of every hun¬ 
dred Russians were members of Mirs. At the end of the nineteenth century about nine 
tenths of the people were living in these little villages. 




































































% 





§ 882 ] THE LIBERAL MOVEMENT IN RUSSIA 625 

The Emancipation Code, ' the Magna Carta of the Russian 
peasant,” which was promulgated in 1861, required the masters 
of the peasant serfs to give them the lands they had farmed for 
themselves, for which, however, they were to make some fixed 
return in labor or rent. 1 The lands thus acquired became the 
common property of the village. All other serfs, such as house 
servants and operatives in factories, were to gain their freedom at 
the end of two years’ additional service, during which time, how¬ 
ever, they were to receive fair wages. 

As in the case of the emancipation of the slaves in our South¬ 
ern States, the emancipation of the Russian serfs did not meet all 
the hopeful expectations of the friends of the reform. One cause 
of the unsatisfactory outcome of the measure was that the villagers 
did not get enough land, save in those districts where the earth 
is very rich, to enable them to support themselves by its tillage. 
Hence many of them left their allotments and went to the cities, 
and others fell into debt and became the victims of heartless 
usurers. 

882 . The Liberal Movement in Russia; Nihilism and 
Terrorism. From 1815 onward there was a growing protest in 
Russia against the despotic government of the Tsar. This move¬ 
ment was nothing else than the outworking in Russia of the ideas 
of the French Revolution. If some definite beginning of the move¬ 
ment be sought, this may be found in the events of 1813-1815. 
In those years, as it has been put, the whole Russian army, like 
the great Tsar Peter, went on a pilgrimage to the West, and, 
like Peter, they got some new ideas. This was simply a repeti¬ 
tion of what had occurred in the case of those Frenchmen who 
in 1776 went to America to take part in the War of American 
Independence (sect. 740). 

Those carrying on this propaganda of liberalism were known 
after 1862 as Nihilists. They were found especially in the faculties 

1 The serfs on the crown and state lands, about 23,000,000 in number, had already 
been freed by special edicts (the first issued in July, 1858). They were given at once, 
without any return being exacted, the lands they had so long tilled as nominal bondsmen. 
We say iiomiiicil bondsmen, since this class labored under only a few restrictions and 
were subject to the payment merely of a light rent. 


626 RUSSIA AFTER THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA [§ 8 S 3 


and among the students of the universities. Their fundamental 
demands were for constitutional representative government, the 
reform of the judicial system, and the removal of the restriction 
upon free discussion of public matters. In a word, they demanded 
that the Russian people should have all those rights and immu¬ 
nities which the peoples of western Europe were enjoying. 

At the time of the Russo-Turkish War of 1878-1879 the liberal 
movement assumed a violent phase,—just as the Revolution in 
France did in 1793,—being then transformed into what is known 
as Terrorism. Nihilism took this form under the persecutions and 
repressions of the government. The principle of the extreme 
Nihilists, or Terrorists, that assassination is a righteous means of 
political reform was now acted upon. The Tsar, Alexander II, 
was assassinated (1881). After that event the government be¬ 
came even more cruelly despotic and repressive than before. 

Finland particularly was the victim of this ruthless and irre¬ 
sponsible despotism. This country was ceded to Russia by Sweden 
in 1809. It formed a grand duchy of the Russian Empire. It 
had a liberal constitution which the Tsars had sworn to main¬ 
tain and which secured the Finns a full measure of local self- 
government. Under their constitution the Finns, who number about 
two million souls, were a loyal, contented, and prosperous people. 
During the years 1899-1902 the Tsar Nicholas II by a series of 
imperial decrees practically annulled the ancient Finnish con¬ 
stitution and reduced the country to the condition of an adminis¬ 
trative district of the empire. In a word, Finland was made a 
second Poland. 

883 . The Calling of the Duma (1905). There could of course 
be but one outcome to this contest between the "Autocrat of all 
the Russias” 1 and his subjects. The Tsar of Russia was simply 
fighting the hopeless battle that has been fought and lost by so 

1 It was only theoretically that the Tsar was the autocratic ruler of Russia. The 
power behind the throne, the actual ruler, was the hierarchy of officials, who constituted 
what is known as a bureaucracy. This body of narrow-minded, selfish, and corrupt officials 
has been well likened to the monster in Mrs. Shelley’s romance Frankenstein. Like 
that monster it got beyond the control of its creator and committed wanton and 
revolting crimes. 


§ 883] 


THE CALLING OF THE DUMA 


627 


many despotic sovereigns, a battle which has ever the same issue,— 
the triumph of liberal principles and the admission of the people 
to participation in the government. 

The Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, by utterly discrediting 
the corrupt, unscrupulous, and incapable government of the autoc¬ 
racy, brought matters to a crisis. The people, forced to make 
unheard-of sacrifices of life and treasure to carry on a disastrous 
war in which they had neither voice nor interest, arose in virtual 
insurrection. The Tsar, finally constrained to promise the people 
a share in the government, convened in 1905 a body called the 
Duma, or National Assembly, composed of representatives elected 
by the people. 

Although the Duma was at first really nothing more than a 
consultative body, it soon gained legislative powers and gradually 
acquired such a position in the government that, in the midst of 
the stress of the great European war, it became for a time the 
rallying-point of the movement which resulted in the overthrow 
of the monarchy and the establishment of a republic (1917). 
The story of this momentous revolution forms a part of the 
history of the World War, being one of the outcomes of that 
titanic struggle. 

References. Rambaud, A., History of Russia, vol. iii. Leroy-Beaulieu, A., 
The Empire of the Tsars and the Russians, 3 vols. Morfill, W. R., The Story 
of Russia, chaps, x and xi. Stepniaic (pseudonym), The Russian Peasantry. 
Noble, E., The Russian Revolt and Russia and the Russians. Seignobos, C., 
A Political History of Europe, pp. 638-67s. 


CHAPTER LXXIV 


THE NEW INDUSTRIALISM 

884 . The Physical Basis of the New Industrialism. We 

have already noted the beginnings in England of the new indus¬ 
trialism created by the great inventions which marked the latter 
part of the eighteenth century (sect. 730). In the decade between 
1830 and 1840 the industrial development thus initiated received 
a great impulse through the bringing to practical perfection of 
several of the earlier inventions and by new discoveries and fresh 
inventions. Prominent among these were the steam railway, the 
electric telegraph, and the ocean steamship. In the year 1830 
George Stephenson exhibited the first really successful locomotive. 
In 1836 Morse perfected the telegraph. In 1838 ocean steamship 
navigation was first practically solved. In their relation to the new 
industrial epoch, these inventions may be compared to the three 
great inventions or discoveries (printing, gunpowder, and the 
mariner’s compass) which ushered in the Modern Age (sect. 537). 

Somewhat later, to these parent inventions were added new proc¬ 
esses for making iron and steel, which equipped the new industry : 
the electric engine, which brought in the trolley car; the gasoline 
motor, which gave the world the automobile and the airplane; and 
• innumerable other inventions and mechanical appliances of science. 
These form the physical basis of the new industrialism. 

885 . Characteristics of the New Industrialism. First, the 
new industrialism substituted machine production for hand pro¬ 
duction. This meant for one thing an enormous increase in the 
quantity of articles manufactured for human use. 

Second, the new industrialism transferred the chief industries 
from the home to the factory. This, as we shall see, has had 
a profound and far-reaching influence upon the family group, 
especially upon the women members of it. 

628 


§ 886] GRADUAL SPREAD OF THE NEW SYSTEM 629 

Third, the new industrialism, hastening a development already 
in progress, brought in the capitalistic system of industry. Under 
this system those engaged in the industrial life of society are 
divided into two chief classes : namely, capitalistic employers, a 
comparatively small class who furnish the large amount of capital 
needed to carry on manufacturing and other enterprises in the 
large way required by the new industrialism; and workmen, com¬ 
prising the larger part of the industrial population, who sell their 
labor to the capitalistic employers for a certain wage. 

886. Gradual Spread of the New System. Besides bearing in 
mind these important features of the new industry, we should also 
note the fact that it was only gradually that the new method of 
manufacturing was introduced into the different countries. As 
we have learned, the revolution began in England in the latter 
half of the eighteenth century and before the outbreak of the 
French Revolution had transformed the chief national manufac¬ 
tures, particularly the production of hardware and of cotton and 
woolen goods. Two or three decades later the industries of the 
leading countries of western continental Europe were transformed. 
In Russia the revolution was only fairly under way at the opening 
of the war of 1914. China was only just beginning to feel the 
effects of the new mode of production. In the course of time the 
revolution must inevitably penetrate all the countries of the world, 
for the old hand processes of manufacture cannot compete with 
the new power-machine methods of production. 

In the following sections we shall note how the new industrialism 
has reacted upon the political, the social, and the economic life 
of the peoples that have come under its transforming influence. 

887. Political Results of the New Industrialism. The new 
industrialism has furthered greatly the Political Revolution, that 
democratic movement of the last two centuries which we have 
been following. It has done this largely by developing city life. 
The factory system of manufacturing requires the concentration 
of the working population at the great industrial centers. Hence 
the population of the countries that have come under the in¬ 
fluence of the new industry, from being predominantly rural and 


630 


THE NEW INDUSTRIALISM 


[§ 88S 


agricultural, has become predominantly urban and industrial. 
Now, city life fosters democracy. Through daily contact with one 
another, through exchange of ideas, through increased opportu¬ 
nities for collective action, the dwellers of the city become less 
conservative than country people and more ready to engage in 
political activities and projects of reform. 1 Hence the new indus¬ 
try, through the concentration of the population of the industrial 
nations in large cities, has given a great impulse to the develop¬ 
ment of government by the people. 

Another important political result of the new industrialism has 
been the intensifying of international rivalries. The increased 
production of the great factories, mills, and workshops of the 
new industry has impelled the manufacturers to seek foreign 
and distant markets for their surplus goods. This has intensified 
the competition among the great industrial nations for the control 
of the world’s markets, and has led governments to establish 
protectorates, acquire dependencies, and even to seek to get com¬ 
plete political control of the lands of backward, semi-civilized, 
and decadent peoples, in order thereby to gain new outlets for 
the surplus manufactures of the national industries, or to secure 
the native products of these overseas countries for use as raw 
material in the home industries and arts. This sharp international 
competition thus induced has been one of the most important 
factors in the history of the last two or three decades. It was 
one of the contributory causes of the World War, which will be 
the subject of a later chapter. 

888 . Relation of the New Industrialism to the Woman’s 
Movement. The new industrialism, as we have seen, has trans¬ 
ferred various of the industries and arts formerly carried on in 
the home, and largely by the women members of the family, from 
the home to the factory. The women have followed the work, 
and thus have entered into industrial competition with the men. 
Naturally, this new place and role in the industrial life of society 
has led them to seek emancipation from the various disabilities 

1 It will be recalled how the mediaeval towns were the birthplace of political 
freedom (cf. sect. 476). 


§ 889 ] 


THE LABOR PROBLEM 


631 


under which they have labored from time immemorial, and to- 
demand the right of suffrage, and equal participation with men 
in the making of laws and in the conduct of the government under 
which they live. This woman’s movement is undoubtedly one 
of the most significant which the new industrialism has created, or 
to which it has given fresh force and urgency. 

889 . The Labor Problem. The new industrialism has created 
many problems of an economic nature. Beyond question the one 
most deeply charged with grave import for society is the so-called 
Labor Problem. This problem, viewed in its most important 
aspect, may be stated thus: How are the products of the world’s, 
industry to be equitably distributed? 

The condition of things is this: Through the employment of 
the forces of nature and the use of improved machinery, economic 
goods, that is, things which meet the wants of men, can be 
produced in almost unlimited quantities. But this increase in 
society’s efficiency in industrial production has not entirely solved: 
our economic problems, for there are still many who are very poor 
despite the enormous total wealth of the world. Under the pres¬ 
ent mode of distribution, in which the total product of the com¬ 
bined effort of capital and labor is apportioned as rent, interest^ 
wages, and profit, the few secure a disproportionate share of the 
output of the new industry. Great monopolies or trusts have 
been created and fabulous fortunes have been amassed by a few 
individuals, while the great majority of the unskilled laborers 
for wages have had their toil lightened and their remuneration 
increased by far less rapid stages. 

This slowness with which we have progressed toward the equi¬ 
table distribution of wealth, of material well-being, and of the 
benefits and enjoyments of modern civilization has created 
dangerous discontent in the ranks of the manual workers, espe¬ 
cially of those who are least educated and so least familiar with 
the slow steps by which substantial and enduring progress has 
usually been made. This discontent finds expression in strikes 
and agitation for the more rapid improvement of their economic 
condition. 


THE NEW INDUSTRIALISM 


[§ S 90 


632 

890 . Socialism and Industrial Democracy. Among many 
proposed solutions of the labor problem, such as profit-sharing, and 
boards of conciliation to adjust disputes between employers and 
employed about wages, hours of employment, and general conditions 
of labor, the one that has provoked most discussion and assumed 
greatest historical significance is that offered by the socialists. 1 

The core or essence of true socialism is common ownership 
and management of all industrial instruments and enterprises. 
Just as our government—local, state, or national — now owns 
schoolhouses and controls education, owns and conducts the post 
office, municipal waterworks, and other public utilities, so would 
the socialists have all governments, by the more or less gradual 
extension of their functions, assume possession and control of the 
railways, the telegraph and telephone systems, the mines, the mills, 
the factories, the land — in a word, all industrial instruments and 
undertakings. They would thus do away with the present wage sys¬ 
tem and private capital , but not with private or individual property. 

The programme of the socialists has, however, made slow prog¬ 
ress in Great Britain and America. In both lands it is usually 
viewed as involving too fundamental a change in the present system 
of industry to be adopted as a whole in the near future. Indeed, 
recent experiences in government control of industry during the 
emergency of war have led many progressive thinkers among both 
employers and employed to fear greater evils under a system of 
socialism than those that we now endure. They point, on the one 
hand, to the frightful conditions to which communism — an ex¬ 
treme form of socialism—has led in Russia and elsewhere and, on 
the other, to the slow but certain progress that the present system 
is making toward a fairer division of the returns from all industry. 

References. Schaeffle, A. E. F., The Quintessence of Socialism. Ely, R. T., 
Socialism and Social Reform. Spargo, J., Socialism, a Summary and Interpre¬ 
tation of Socialist Principles. Seignobos, C., History of Contemporary Civiliza¬ 
tion, pp. 425-436. Cunningham, W., Western Civilization in its Economic 
Aspects (Mediaeval and MWern Times), pp. 225—267. 

1 The father of German socialism, which is the most influential body of socialistic 
doctrine in the world, was Karl Marx (1818-1883). x 


CHAPTER LXXV 


EUROPEAN EXPANSION IN THE NINETEENTH AND THE 
EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY 

I. CAUSES AND GENERAL PHASES OF THE EXPANSION 

MOVEMENT 

891 . Significance of the Expansion of Europe into Greater 

Europe. In speaking of the establishment of the European 
colonies and settlements of the sixteenth and seventeenth cen¬ 
turies we likened this expansion of Europe into Greater Europe 
to the expansion in antiquity of Greece into Greater Greece 
and Rome into Greater Rome. We have now to say something 
of the later phases of this wonderful outward movement of the 
European peoples. 

In the first place we should note that it is this expansion move¬ 
ment which gives such significance to that intellectual, moral, 
and political development of the European peoples which we 
have been studying. This evolution might well be likened to 
the religious evolution in ancient Judea. That development of a 
new religion was a matter of transcendent importance because 
the new faith was destined not for a little corner of the earth 
but for all the world. Likewise the creation by Renaissance, 
Reformation, and Revolution of a new, rich, and progressive 
civilization in Europe is a matter of vast importance to universal 
history because that civilization has manifestly been wrought out 
not for a single continent or for a single race but for all the 
continents and for all mankind. 

We are now to see how the bearers of this new culture have 
carried or are carrying it to all lands and are communicating 
it to all peoples, thereby opening up a new era not alone in the 
history of Europe but in the history of the world. 

633 


GENERAL EUROPEAN EXPANSION 


[§8 92 


634 


892. The Fate of the Earlier Colonial Empires; Decline and 
Revival of Interest in Colonies. The history we have narrated 
has indicated the fate of all the colonial empires founded by the 
various European nations during the sixteenth and seventeenth 
centuries. The magnificent Portuguese Empire soon became the 
spoil of the Dutch and the British; France lost her colonial 
possessions to England; a great part of the colonies of the Dutch 
also finally fell into British hands; before the end of the eight¬ 
eenth century England lost through revolution her thirteen colo¬ 
nies in North America ; and in the early part of the nineteenth 
century Spain in like manner lost all her dependencies on the 
mainland of the New World. 

After these discouraging experiences with their colonies the 
governments of Europe lost interest for a while in possessions 
beyond the seas. Statesmen came to hold the doctrine that 
colonies are "like fruit, which as soon as ripe falls from the 
tree.” The British minister Disraeli, in referring to England's 
colonial possessions, once used these words: "Those wretched 
colonies are millstones about our neck.” 

Before the close of the nineteenth century, however, fostered by 
•different causes, there sprang up a most extraordinary revival of 
interest in colonies and dependencies, and the leading European 
states began to compete eagerly for over-the-sea possessions. Dur¬ 
ing the last fifteen or twenty years of the nineteenth century 
almost all the old colonizing peoples of Europe were exerting 
themselves to the utmost to build up new empires to take the 
place of those they had lost, while other nations that had never 
possessed colonies now also entered into competition with those 
earlier in the field. 

893. Stanley’s Discoveries open up the "Dark Continent.” 

By this time, however, almost all lands outside of Europe suited 
to permanent European settlement were closed against true coloni¬ 
zation by having been appropriated by England, or through 
their being in the control of independent states that had 
grown out of colonies planted by immigrants of European speech 
and blood. 


§S94] THE PARTITION OF AFRICA 635 

Africa, however, was still left. For a century intrepid explorers 
had been endeavoring to uncover the mysteries of that continent. 
Among these was the missionary-explorer David Livingstone. He 
died in 1873. His mantle fell upon Henry M. Stanley, who a short 
time after the death of Livingstone set out on an adventurous 
expedition across Africa 1 (1S74-1877), in which journey he 
discovered the course of the Congo 
and learned the nature of its great 
basin. Not since the age of Colum¬ 
bus had there been any discoveries in 
the domain of geography comparable 
in importance to these of Stanley. 

Stanley gave the world an account 
of his journey in a book bearing the 
title Through the Dark Continent. 

The appearance of this work marks 
an epoch in the history of Africa. 

It inspired innumerable enterprises, 
political, commercial, and philan¬ 
thropic, whose aim was to develop 
the natural resources of the continent 
and to open it up to civilization. 

894. The Partition of Africa. The discoveries of Stanley and 
the founding of the Congo Free State 2 were the signal for a scram- 
ble among the powers of Europe for African territory. England, 
France, and Germany were the strongest competitors and they 
got the largest shares. In less than a generation Africa became 
a dependency of Europe. The only native states retaining their 
independence at the beginning of the war of 1914 were Abyssinia 
and the negro republic of Liberia. The government of the latter 
was in the hands of American freedmen or their descendants. 



Fig. 143. Henry M. Stanley 
(From a photograph) 


1 Stanley had made an earlier expedition (1871-1872) in search of Livingstone. 

2 From 1882, the year of the actual founding of the state, until 1908 the country 
was merely an appanage of the Belgian crown. In 1908 Leopold II, king of the Belgians,, 
ceded the state (now the Belgian Congo) to Belgium. Important products of the country 
are rubber, palm-nuts, and cocoa. Cotton and tobacco are successfully cultivated.. 
Recent estimates of the population of the colony vary from 9,000,000 to 15,000,000, 





636 


THE EXPANSION OF ENGLAND 


[§ 895 


This transference of the control of the affairs of Africa from 
the hands of its native inhabitants or those of Asiatic Moham¬ 
medan intruders to the hands of Europeans is without question 
the most momentous transaction in the history of that continent, 
and one which must shape its future destiny. In the following 
sections of this chapter, in which we propose briefly to rehearse 
the part which each of the leading European states has taken in 
the general expansion movement, we shall speak of the part which 
each played in the partition of Africa and tell what each secured. 

II. THE EXPANSION OF ENGLAND 

895. England in America; the Dominion of Canada. The 

separation of the thirteen American colonies from England in 
1776 seemed to give a fatal blow to British hopes of establishing 
a great colonial empire in America. But half of North America 
still remained in British hands. Gradually the attractions of 
British North America as a dwelling place for settlers of Euro¬ 
pean stock became known. Immigration, mostly from the British 
Isles, increased in volume, so that the population rose from about 
a quarter of a million at the opening of the nineteenth century to 
over seven millions (estimated) in 1914. One of the most impor¬ 
tant matters in the political history of Canada since the country 
passed under British rule is the granting of responsible govern¬ 
ment to the provinces in 1841. 1 This concession of complete self- 
government was followed, in 1867, by the union of Upper and 
Lower Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick in a federal 
state under the name of the Dominion of Canada. Later the 
confederation was joined by British Columbia, Prince Edward 
Island, and other provinces. Newfoundland has steadily refused 
to join the union. 

The political union of the provinces made possible the success¬ 
ful accomplishment of one of the great engineering undertakings of 
our age. This was the construction of a transcontinental railroad 

1 The treaty-making power and matters of peace and war are still in the hands of the 
British government. 


30 


20 


10 


20 



Tunis'' 

Med i t 


Casa^lancE^v-— 

MOROCCO 

® /• 

Morocco / 


Beirut^i^r Damascus' 
J aff a^jferusallm 
jftPSrt !?jud \ 


WALGERIA- 

/I (Annexed to ' 

' France, 1848) 


° Madeira Is. 
(Port.) / 

Agadirt 


Tripoli 


Ale'xandriaj 


Canary Is, 


: e g y \i* I 

(Tributary of TurSfe 
- ; to 1914 ) ^ 

Assouan] 
. : 1st Ca tn ract - 

: : -Wadi Halfor^ 


Medina 


Tropic of Cancer 


Alec?a 


Timbuktu 


'Senc^ 


assawa 


St.Louis 


'SENEGAL 
NIGER I 


UPPER 

AND/ 


: .VV. Oindiirinan ‘1 
Khartum! 
ANGLO-EGYPTIAN SUDA 

El Oleid 


Cape Verde 
•'(Port.) 


C. Verde (Jr'sENEGAL 
Dakar's,_ 

T GAMBIA—^—> 

BathurstP" 


L. Chad 


’Bamaku 


Aden 


Sokotra 

, o CZ7 ( To Gr.Br.) 
C. Guardafui 


DARFUR 


.Jibuti 


FRESJUK: 
SOMALI COAST, 


Berber a; 


portug' 


Fasnoda// 


bagirmi 


BRITISH 


. oruiion i 

ScWVLALILAND/ ^ 

v\/^r 


KonakryA 

Freetown 


SIERRA s' 


GOLD* 

COAST 


LEONE • 


kumassi, 

:oa8tVasit 


[VORY 


Monrovia 


,ba£*' Buea 


& y)uala 

SPANISHi “ 

mil.r, I 


Fernando Po I. 

(Spanish) 

Princess I. Q 
(Port.) 


Albert ill 

Nyanza'/fl 1 ^ AND A 


Port Florence 


EAST AFRICA 


Equator 


St. Thomas I, 


Equator 


(Port.) 

o 

Annobon I, 
(Spaa) 

A N 


!j Xyanza 0 


V K Virtorif 

) i "'4 
KONGO 7 

\ n^js Lake] 
angwe'jj', ( 

Tanganyika' 


.Brazzaville 


0 Seychelles Is. 
(To Gr.Br.) 
Amirante Is. 

(To Gr.Br.) 


Mombasa 


/GERMAN 


Leopoldville 


> Zanzibar (British) 
Dar-es-Salaam 


Boma 


i\ EAST AFRICA 


Ascension Is? 
(To Gr.Br.) 


Loandaj 


t PORTUGUESE 
Benguelal A NG'O h 


,Comoro Is. 
(Fr.) 


o <3 

Mayotte 5 

iMozambique 


WEST AFRICA 


St. Helena 
(To Gr.Br.) 


JTamatave 

lanarivo 


GERMAN 


leira 


BulawaJ' 


.Sofa la 


Reunion I.<Q 
(Fr.) 


FTH WES' 1 


SEC HU AN A LAND 


TRANS- (j 
VAAL 1 s \ 


Tropic of Capricorn 


af ekioJ: 

■J-6hann< 


Delagoa Bay 

■ i MLourenco Marquez 

Tmajuba hill I 

NATAL/ 1 

VPdtermaritzburg I 


,? tj/Durban 


Port Elizabeth 


Strait of Gibraltaf''*-ff e ^S?^f^'' l 
__ Tangiers/S^iLL-j®^ 


THE PARTITION OF 

AFRICA 

Showing the Colonies, Dependencies, 


kopmun' 

Protectorates, and Spheres of Influence of \ daiflech Bay\ 


\ the different European States until 1914 . 

LEGEND 

British 1 i Freiichl_I German]-I 

Portuguese i i ItalianCm 

Regions not under European control are uncolored 

-r>,-i__ j Finished _ 

Railways j Proposed _ 


Angra Pequeual 
1000 


DIA 


E A N 


Scale of Miles 


Longitude 20 West from 10 Greenwich 


o Rodriguez I. 


Mauritius I. 
(To/Gr.Br.) 


(To Gr.Br.) 


Comparative Area 


PENN. 


' 45,215 Square Miles 


Cape Town 

C. of Good Ilope^ 


40 Longitude 50 East from 60 Greenwich 













































































































§ 896 ] ENGLAND IN AUSTRALASIA 637 

(the Canadian Pacific Railway) from Montreal to Vancouver. 
This road has done for the confirming of the federal union 
and for the industrial development of the Dominion what 
the building of similar transcontinental lines has done for the 
United States. 1 

In the World War of 1914—1918 the Dominion was stanchly 
loyal to the motherland, sending more than four hundred thousand 
soldiers to fight by the side of the soldiers of Great Britain and 
of her other overseas dominions. 

By reason of its vast geographical extent,—its area is more 
than thirty-five times as great as that of the British Isles,— its 
inexhaustible mineral deposits, its unrivaled fisheries, its limitless 
forests, grazing lands, and wheat fields, its bracing climate, and, 
above all, its free institutions, the Dominion of Canada seems 
marked out to be one of the great future homes of the Anglo- 
Saxon race. 

896. England in Australasia 2 ; the Proclamation of the Com¬ 
monwealth of Australia ( 1901 ). About the time that England 
lost her American colonies the celebrated navigator Captain Cook 
reached and explored the shores of New Zealand and Australia 
(1769-1771). Disregarding the claims of earlier visitors to these 
lands, he took possession of the islands for the British crown. 

The best use to which England could at first think to put the 
new lands was to make them a place of exile for criminals. The 
first shipload of convicts was landed at Botany Bay in Australia 
in 1788. But the agricultural riches of large districts of the new 
lands,— the interior of Australia is a hopeless desert,— their 
adaptability to stock raising, and the healthfulness of the climate 
soon drew to them a stream of British immigrants. In 1851 

1 In 1914 a second still longer transcontinental line (the Grand Trunk Pacific Rail¬ 
way), running from a point in New Brunswick to Prince Rupert, British Columbia, was 
completed. 

2 Australasia, meaning "south land of Asia,” is the name under which Australia and 
New Zealand are comprehended. Here, as in South Africa, in Canada, and in India, 
England appeared late on the ground. The Spaniards and the Dutch had both preceded 
her. The presence of the Dutch is witnessed by the names New Holland (the earlier 
name of Australia), Van Diemen’s Land (the original name of Tasmania), and New 
Zealand, attaching to the greater islands. 


638 


THE EXPANSION OF ENGLAND 


[§ 897 


came the announcement of the discovery in Australia of fabuloush 
rich deposits of gold, and then set in a tide of immigration such 
as the world has seldom seen. 

Before the close of the nineteenth century five flourishing 
colonies (New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Aus¬ 
tralia, and West Australia), with an aggregate population, includ¬ 
ing that of the neighboring island of Tasmania, of almost four- 
millions (by 1914 this number had increased to about five mil¬ 
lions), had grown up along the fertile well-watered rim of the 
Australian continent and had developed free institutions similar 
to those of the mother country. 

The chief political event in the history of these colonies before 
the beginning of the World War was their consolidation, just 
at the opening of the twentieth century (1901), into the Common¬ 
wealth of Australia, a federal union similar to our own. 1 

Like Canada, Australia, together with New Zealand, made great 
sacrifices in blood and treasure to uphold the cause of the mother¬ 
land and her allies in the tremendous contest that began in Europe- 
in 1914. 

The vast possibilities of the future of this new Anglo-Saxon 
commonwealth in the South Pacific—the area of Australia is only 
a little less than that of the United States—have impressed in an 
unwonted way the imagination of the world. It is possible that 
in the coming times this new T Britain will hold some such place 
of dominance in the Pacific as the motherland now holds in 
the Atlantic. 

897 . England in Asia. We have noted the founding of the 
British Indian Empire (sect. 726). Throughout the nineteenth 
century England steadily advanced the frontiers of her dominions 
here and consolidated her power until by the opening of the 
twentieth century she had brought either under her direct rule or 
under her suzerainty over three hundred millions of Asiatics. 2 

1 New Zealand was not included in the federation. It, together with some neigh¬ 
boring islands, constitutes a self-governing Dominion. It has a population, exclusive of 
natives, of slightly over a million (census of 1911). 

2 By the census of 1901 the population of the British Indian Empire (this includes 
the feudatory states) was 294,461,056; by the census of 1911 it was 315,156,396. 


§S 97 ] ENGLAND IN ASIA 639 

We must here note how England’s occupation of India and 
her large interests in the trade of southern and eastern Asia 
involved her during the nineteenth century in several wars and 
shaped in great measure her foreign policies. One of the earliest 
of these wars was that known as the Afghan W T ar of 1838-1842, 
into which she was drawn through her policy of maintaining 
Afghanistan as a buffer state between India and Russia. 

At the same time England became involved in the so-called 
Opium War with China 1 (1839-1842). As a result of this war 
England obtained by cession from China the island and port of 
Hongkong, which she has made one of the most important com¬ 
mercial and naval stations of her Empire. 

Scarcely was the Opium War ended before England was in¬ 
volved in a gigantic struggle with Russia,—the Crimean War, 
already spoken of in connection with Russian history. Before 
the echoes of this war had died away England was startled by the 
most alarming intelligence from the country for the secure posses¬ 
sion of which British soldiers had borne their part in the fierce 
struggle before Sevastopol. In 1857 there broke out in the armies 
of the East India Company (sect. 667) what is known as the 
Sepoy Mutiny. Fortunately many of the native regiments stood' 
firm in their allegiance to England, and with their aid the revolt 
was speedily crushed. As a consequence of the mutiny the govern¬ 
ment of India was by act of Parliament taken out of the hands of 
the East India Company and vested in the British crown. 

There are without question offsets to the indisputably good 
results of British rule in India; nevertheless it is one of the most 
important facts of modern history, and one of special import as 
bearing on our present study, that over three hundred millions 
of the population of Asia should thus have passed under the rule 
and wardship of a European nation. 

1 The opium traffic between India and China had grown into gigantic proportions 
and had become a source of wealth to the British merchants and of revenue to the 
Indian Government. The Chinese Government, however, awake to the evils of the 
growing use of the narcotic, resisted the importation of the drug. This was the cause 
of the war. The Chinese Government was compelled to acquiesce in the continuance 
of the nefarious traffic. 


640 


THE EXPANSION OF ENGLAND 


[§ S 9 S 


898 . England in South Africa; Boer and Briton. England 

has played a great part in the partition of Africa. Her first ap¬ 
pearance upon the continent, both in Egypt and at the Cape, was 
brought about through her solicitude for her East India possessions 
and the security of her routes thither. Later she joined in the 
scramble of European powers for African territories for their 
own sake. 

The Dutch had preceded the British in South Africa. They 
began their settlement at the Cape about the middle of the seven¬ 
teenth century, in the great days of Holland. After the down¬ 
fall of Napoleon in 1814 the colony was ceded to England by 
the Netherlands. 1 

The Dutch settlers refused to become reconciled to the British 
rule. In 1836 a large number of these aggrieved colonists took 
the heroic resolve of abandoning their old homes and going out 
into the African wilderness in search of new ones. This migration 
is known as "The Great Trek.” 2 The emigrants journeyed from 
the Cape toward the northeast, driving their herds before them 
and carrying their women and children and all their earthly goods 
in great clumsy oxcarts. Beyond the Orange River some of the 
emigrants unyoked their oxen and set up homes, laying there 
the basis of the Orange Free State; the more intrepid "trekked” 
still farther to the north, across the Vaal River, and established 
the republic of the Transvaal. 

Two generations passed, a period filled for the little republics, 
surrounded by hostile African tribes, with anxieties and fighting. 
Then there came a turning point in their history. In the year 
1885 gold deposits of extraordinary richness were discovered in 
the Transvaal. Straightway there began a tremendous inrush of 
miners and adventurers from all parts of the globe. 

A great portion of these newcomers were English-speaking 
people. As aliens — Uitlanders, "outlanders,” they were called 

1 After the loss of the Cape Settlement, the island of Java was the most important 
colonial possession remaining to the Dutch. Gradually they got possession of the 
greater part of the large island of Sumatra. These two islands form the heart of the 
Dutch East Indies of today, which embrace a native population of about 36,000,000. 

2 Trek is Dutch for " migration ” or " journey.” 


§ 898 ] 


ENGLAND IN SOUTH AFRICA 


641 


— they were excluded from any share in the government, although 
they made up two thirds of the population of the state and paid 
the greater part of the taxes. They demanded the franchise. 
The Boers, under the lead of the sturdy President of the Trans¬ 
vaal, Paul Kruger, refused to accede to their demands, urging that 
this would mean practically the surrender of the independence of 
the Republic and its annexation to the British Empire. 

The controversy grew more and more bitter and soon ripened 
into war between England and the Transvaal (1899). The Orange 
Free State joined its little army to that of its sister state. 1 After 
the maintenance of the struggle for over two years the last of 
the Boer bands surrendered (1902). As the outcome of the war 
both of the republics were annexed to the British Empire under 
the names of the Transvaal Colony and the Orange River Colony. 

Only a few years had passed after the close of the war when 
the British government very wisely granted the two colonies 
self-government. Straightway these states and Cape Colony with 
Natal joined in the creation of a federal commonwealth under the 
name of the Union of South Africa 2 (1910). Thus was consum¬ 
mated the favorite project of the South African statesman Cecil 
Rhodes (1853-1902), the " empire builder,” one of the most 
masterful men of his generation. 

The act of the British government in intrusting the Boers 
with a responsible government won in such measure their loyalty 
to the Empire that at the outbreak of the World War in 1914 
they rallied—though not quite unanimously—to the support 
of England, and in the name of the Empire conquered German 
Southwest and German East Africa. 

One of the most important enterprises of the British in Africa 
is the building of a Cape-to-Cairo railroad. This, like the political 
scheme of a federation, was also a favorite project of Cecil Rhodes. 

1 The total European or white population of the two little republics that thus 
threw down the gage of battle to the most powerful empire of modern times was 
only a little over 300,000. 

2 The population of the Union according to the census of 1911 is about 7,000,000, 
of which about 1,250,000 are of European stock and the rest native or colored. Gold 
and diamond mining is the leading industry. 


642 


THE EXPANSION OF FRANCE 


[§899 


Already his dream has been in great part realized. This railway 
when completed, as without doubt it will be at no remote date, 
will be a potent factor in the opening up of the Dark Continent 
to civilization. 

899 . England in Egypt. In 1876 England and France estab¬ 
lished a joint control over Egypt in order to secure against loss 
their subjects who were holders of Egyptian bonds. 1 Later this 
became a sole British control. 2 

No part of the world has benefited more by European control 
than Egypt. When England assumed the administration of its 
affairs it was in every respect one of the most wretched of the 
lands under the rule, actual or nominal, of the Turkish Sultan. 
The country is now more prosperous than at any previous period 
of its history. This high degree of prosperity has been secured 
mainly through England’s having given Egypt the two things 
declared necessary to its prosperity,— "justice and water.” 

The construction of the great irrigation or storage dam across 
the Nile at the First Cataract (at Assuan) is one of the greatest 
engineering achievements of modern times. This enterprise has 
vastly increased the agricultural capabilities of Egypt. 

III. THE EXPANSION OF FRANCE 

900 . France in Africa. At the opening of the nineteenth 
century France possessed only fragments of a once promising; 
colonial empire. When finally she began to look about her for 
over-the-seas territories to make good her losses in America and 
Asia, it was the North African shore that, on account of proximity, 
climate, and products, naturally attracted her attention. This 
region possesses great agricultural resources. In ancient times it 
was one of the richest grain-tribute-paying provinces of the 
Roman Empire. Its climate is favorable for Latin-European 
settlement. 

1 Egypt was at that time nominally an hereditary principality under the suzerainty of 
the Ottoman Porte. 

- I he \\ orld \\ ar brought to an end the nominal suzerainty of the Ottoman Porte 
over Egypt. Turkey having entered the war on the side of Germany and her allies. 
Great Britain declared an actual protectorate over the country (1914). 


§ 900] 


FRANCE IN AFRICA 


643 


France began the conquest of Algeria as early as 1830. The 
subjugation of the country was not effected without much hard 
lighting with the native tribes and a great expenditure in men 
and money. In the year 1881, assigning as a reason for the step 
the necessity of defending her Algerian frontier against the raids 
of the mountain tribes of Tunis on the east, France sent troops 
into that country and established a protectorate over it. This act 
of hers deeply offended the Italians, who had had their eye upon 
this district, regarding it as belonging to them by virtue of its 
geographical position as well as its historical traditions. 1 

In 1911 France established a protectorate over Morocco. The 
international dispute, stirred up by Germany, which arose over 
this matter was one of the antecedents of the World War. In a 
later chapter, where we shall speak of the underlying causes of 
this momentous conflict, we shall give a more detailed account 
<of this controversy. 

These North African territories form the most promising por¬ 
tion of France’s new colonial empire. The more sanguine of her 
statesmen entertain hopes of ultimately creating here a new home 
for the French people,—-a sort of New France. In any event it 
seems certain that all these shore lands, which in the seventh cen¬ 
tury were severed from Europe by the Arabian conquests, are now 
again permanently reunited to that continent and are henceforth 
virtually to constitute a part of the European world. 

Besides these lands in North Africa, France possesses a vast 
domain in the region of the Senegal and lays claim to all the 
Sahara lying between her colony of Senegal and Algeria. She also 
holds extensive territories just north of the Congo Free State, 
embracing part of central Sudan, besides less important patches 

1 Disappointed in not getting Tunis, the Italians sought to secure a foothold on 
the Red Sea coast. They seized here a district and organized it under the name of the 
Colony of Eritrea. To the southeast they also took possession of a long strip of coast 
kind (Somaliland). But they had hard luck almost from the first. The coast is hot and 
nnhealthful, and inland is the kingdom of Abyssinia. Over tnis the Italians attempted to 
establish a protectorate: but unfortunately for them Abyssinia does not regard herself 
as one of the uncivilized or moribund states over which it is necessary for Europeans 
to extend their protection. King Menelik of that country inflicted upon the Italian 
army a most disastrous defeat (1896). 


THE EXPANSION OF GERMANY 


[§901 


644 


of territory in other parts of the continent. 1 The great island of 
Madagascar also forms a part of the h rench-African empire. 

901 . France in Asia. In the year 1862 France secured a 
foothold near the mouth of the Cambodia River in Indo-China 
and then steadily enlarged her possessions until by the close of 
the nineteenth century she held in those quarters territories which 
exceeded in extent the homeland. A chief aim of the French in 
this region is to secure the trade of southern China. 

With these ample African and Asiatic territories France feels 
in a measure consoled for her losses in the past, and dreams of a 
brilliant career as one of the great colonizing powers of Europe. 


IV. THE EXPANSION OF GERMANY 

902 . German Emigrants lost to Germany. No country of 

Europe during the expansion movement which we are following 
supplied a greater number of emigrants for the settlement of 
transoceanic lands than Germany. But Germany did not until 
late in the nineteenth century possess under her own flag any 
overseas territories, and consequently, although Germany during 
the earlier expansion period sent out swarms of emigrants, no true 
Greater Germany grew up outside of Europe. But stimulated by 
the war of 1870-1871 against France,, and the consolidation of 
the German Empire, German statesmen began to dream of mak¬ 
ing Germany a world power. To this end it was deemed neces¬ 
sary to secure for Germany colonies where the German emigrants 
might live under the German flag and, instead of contributing to 
the growth and prosperity of other states, should remain Germans 
and constitute a part of the German nation. 

1 The French were anxious to extend their authority eastward to the Nile, and in 
order - to secure a claim to that region an expedition under Major Marchand made an 
adventurous march through central Africa to the Nile and raised the French flag at 
Fashoda. But French ambition here crossed British interests. France established on 
the Upper Nile would be in a position to menace the security of Egypt, while a French 
land route across equatorial Africa, such as the French had in mind, would be an obstruc¬ 
tion to England’s projected Cape-to-Cairo road. After some sharp diplomatic exchanges 
between the French and British governments the French gave up all claim to any part 
of the Nile valley, and the " Fashoda incident,” as it was called, was closed. 


§ 903] 


GERMANY IN AFRICA AND ASIA 


645 


903. Germany in Africa and Asia. Consequently when in 
the last quarter of the nineteenth century the competition began 
for African territory, Germany entered into the struggle with 
great zeal and got a considerable share of the spoils. In 1884 she 
declared a protectorate over a large region of the southwest coast 
of the continent just north of the Orange River, and thus lying 
partly in the temperate zone. 1 This colony was known as German 
Southwest Africa. At about the same time Germany established 
two smaller protectorates on the west coast, near the equator. On 
the eastern coast of the continent she took possession of a great 
territory, twice as large as Germany itself, embracing a part of the 
celebrated Lake District, a region well adapted to European settle¬ 
ment. This territory was named German East Africa. 

In 1897 Germany, on the pretext of protecting German mis¬ 
sionaries in China, seized the port of Kiau-chau and forced its 
practical cession from the Chinese government. This is a spot of 
great importance commercially and politically. The German gov¬ 
ernment aimed to make this colony a true German settlement and 
the outgoing point of German power and influence in the Far East. 2 

Such was the position of Germany in the colonial world at the 
opening of the World War. How that conflict affected her colonial 
aspirations and expansion projects will appear in a later chapter. 

V. THE EXPANSION OF RUSSIA 

904 . Russian Expansion in Asia. Russia has large and 
numerous inland lakes and seas and vast rivers, but she lacks 
seaboard. Her efforts to reach the sea in different directions are, as 
we have learned, the key to much of her history. It is this which 

1 In 1904 the German government was 'forced to face a serious revolt of some of the 
native tribes of the protectorate, which was suppressed only after three years of cruel 
warfare. The natives were virtually exterminated. The number of German colonists in 
the territory at the beginning of the war of 19^4 w&s about 10,000. 

2 Besides the colonial possessions we have named, Germany, before the war of 1914, 
held a number of islands and groups of islands in the Pacific. She had also secured such 
predominant industrial and political influence in Asian Turkey as to make the Ottoman 
Empire almost a German dependency, a matter which will best be considered when we 
come to examine the causes and antecedents of the YY orld \\ ar. 


646 


THE EXPANSION OF RUSSIA 


[§ 905 


has given a special character to Russian expansion,—which has 
made it a movement by land instead of by sea, as in the case of 
all the other European states that have had a part in the great 
expansion movement. 

Russia made no material territorial gains in Europe, aside 
from the acquisition of Finland and part of Prussian Poland, 
during the nineteenth century, although, as we have seen, she 
fought in three great wars for this end and shattered into frag¬ 
ments the Turkish Empire, which lay between her and the goal 
of her ambition,— Constantinople. But in Asia the additions 
which, during this period, she made to her empire were immense 
in extent. By the middle of the century she had absorbed a great 
part of the Caucasus region, encroaching here upon both Persia 
and Turkey in Asia. During the latter half of the century she 
steadily pushed forward her boundaries in central Asia. She 
conquered or conciliated the tribes of Turkestan and advanced 
her frontier in this quarter far toward the south,—close up 
against Afghanistan. In the extreme eastern part of Asia she 
obtained from China, under circumstances which will be explained 
a little farther on, the lease of Port Arthur, one of the most impor¬ 
tant Asiatic harbors on the Pacific, and occupied the large Chinese 
province of Manchuria. 

Thus, by the opening of the twentieth century Russia in her 
expansion had not only subjugated the nomadic or semi-nomadic 
tribes of central Asia but had also won territories from the chief 
semi-civilized or backward states of the continent,—Turkey, 
Persia, and China,—and was crowding heavily upon all those 
countries. 

905 . The Trans-Siberian Railway. Russia’s most note¬ 
worthy undertaking during the nineteenth century in connection 
with her Asiatic empire was the building of the Trans-Siberian 
Railway, which unites Petrograd with the Pacific ports of Vladi¬ 
vostok and Port Arthur (the last since 1905 in possession of 
Japan). The construction of this road has made easily accessible 
to Russian settlers the vast fertile regions of southern Siberia, and, 
before the great European war paralyzed Russian life, was fast 


§ 906 ] GROWTH OF THE UNITED STATES 647 

making that country a part of the civilized world; for though it 
may be true as to the past that 'civilization has come riding on a 
gun carriage,” now it comes riding on a locomotive. 

VI. THE EXPANSION OF THE UNITED STATES 

906. The Growth of the United States a Part of the Great 
European Expansion Movement. At first view it might seem 
that the growth of our own country should not be given a place 
in the present chapter. But the expansion of the United States 
is as truly a part of European expansion as is the increase of the 
British race in Canada, or in Australasia, or in South Africa. 
The circumstance that the development here has taken place since, 
the severance of all political ties binding this country to the- 
motherland is wholly immaterial. The Canadian, Australian,, 
and African developments have also, as a matter of fact, been 
expansion movements from practically secondary and independent 
centers of European settlement. 

Hence to complete our survey of the movement which has put 
in possession or in control of the European peoples so much of 
the earth, we must note—we can simply note — the expansion 
during the past century of the great American Commonwealth.. 

907. How the Territorial Acquisitions of the United States- 
and its Growth in Population have contributed to assure the 
Predominance of the Anglo-Saxon Race in Greater Europe. 
Seven times during the nineteenth and the early twentieth century 
the United States made material acquisitions of territory. 1 These 
gains were in the main at the expense of a Latin race,— the Span¬ 
ish. They have not therefore resulted in an actual increase in the 
possessions of the European peoples, but have simply contributed 
to the ascendancy, in this new-forming European world, of a 
people predominantly Anglo-Saxon in race. 

Of even greater significance than the territorial expansion of 
the United States during the last century is the amazing growth 

1 The last minor acquisition was in 191 7 ? when the United States secured by pur¬ 
chase the Danish \\ est Indian islands — St. Cioix, St. I homas, and St.John. 


648 


CHECK TO EUROPEAN EXPANSION 


[§ 90 S 


of the Republic during this period in population and in material 
and intellectual resources. At the opening of the nineteenth cen¬ 
tury the white population of the United States was a little over 
four millions; by 1920 it had risen to ninety-four millions (esti¬ 
mated). This is the largest aggregate of human force and intelli¬ 
gence that the world has yet seen. Even more impressive than 
its actual are its potential capabilities. With practically unlimited 
room for development, it is impossible adequately to realize into 
what, during the coming centuries, the American people will grow. 

This remarkable growth of an English-speaking nation on the 
soil of the New World has contributed more than anything else, 
save the expansion of Great Britain into Greater Britain, to lend 
impressiveness and import to the movement indicated by the 
expression, "European expansion.” 

VII. CHECK TO EUROPEAN EXPANSION AND AGGRESSION 

IN EASTERN ASIA 

908 . Shall China be partitioned? Before the close of the 
nineteenth century the outward movement of the European 
peoples, which we have now traced in broad outlines, had created 
a great crisis in the life of the peoples of the Far East. It had 
imperiled the independence of one of the great races of mankind, 
the Yellow, or Mongolian, Race, comprising perhaps one third of 
the population of the earth. It had raised the question, Shall 
China be partitioned ? Shall the Mongolian peoples of the Far 
East be dominated and their destinies shaped by the European 
powers? An unexpected answer to these questions was given 
by Japan. 

909 . The Awakening of Japan. For two and a half centuries 
prior to 1854 Japan had been a hermit nation. She jealously ex¬ 
cluded foreigners and refused to enter into diplomatic relations 
with the Western powers. But in the year named Commodore 
Perry of the United States secured from the Japanese govern¬ 
ment concessions which opened the country to Western influ¬ 
ences, under which Japan soon awoke to a new life. 


§ 910] 


THE CHINO-JAPANESE WAR 649 

In the course of the half century following this change in 
Japanese policy, the progress made by Japan on all lines, polit¬ 
ical, material, and intellectual, was something without a parallel 
in history. She transformed her ancient feudal divine-right gov¬ 
ernment into a constitutional system modeled upon the political 
institutions of the W est. She adopted almost entire the material 
side of the civilization of the Western nations and eagerly absorbed 
their sciences. But what took place, it should be carefully noted, 
was not a Europeanization of Japan. The new Japan was an 
evolution of the old. The Japanese today in their innermost life, 
in their deepest instincts, and in their modes of thought are still 
an oriental people. 

910 . The Chino-Japanese War of 1894 . In 1894 came the war 
between Japan and China. A chief cause of this war was China’s 
claim to suzerainty over Korea and her efforts to secure control 
of the affairs of that country. Under the conditions of mod¬ 
ern warfare, and particularly in view of the Russian advance in 
eastern Asia, the maintenance of Korea as an independent state 
seemed to Japan absolutely necessary to the security of her island 
empire. The situation is vividly pictured in these words of a 
Japanese statesman. "Any hostile power,” he says, "in occupation 
of the peninsula might easily throw an army into Japan, for Korea 
lies like a dagger ever pointed toward the very heart of Japan.” 

Still again, realizing that greed of territory would lead the Euro¬ 
pean powers sooner or later to seek the partition of China and the 
political control of the Mongolian lands of the Far East, Japan 
wished to stir China from her lethargy, make herself China’s ad¬ 
viser and leader, and thus get in a position to control the affairs of 
eastern Asia. In a word, she was resolved to set up a sort of 
Monroe Doctrine in her part of the world, which should close 
Mongolian lands against European encroachments and preserve 
for Asiatics what was still left of Asia. 

The war was short and decisive. It was a fight between David 
and Goliath. China with her great inert mass was absolutely help¬ 
less in the hands of her tiny antagonist. With the Japanese army 
in full march upon Peking, the Chinese government was forced to 


/ 


650 CHECK TO EUROPEAN EXPANSION [§911 

sue for peace. China now recognized the independence of Korea, 
.and ceded to Japan Formosa and the extreme southern part of 
Manchuria, including Port Arthur. But at this juncture of affairs 
Russia, supported by France and Germany, jealously intervened. 
These powers forced Japan to accept a money indemnity in lieu of 
territory on the continent. She was permitted, however, to take 
possession of the island of Formosa. 

911. China in Process of Dismemberment; the Boxer Up¬ 
rising ( 1900 ). The march of the little Japanese army into the 
heart of the huge Chinese Empire was in its consequences some¬ 
thing like the famous march of the Ten Thousand Greeks through 
the great Persian Empire. It revealed the surprising weakness of 
China,—a fact known before to all the world, but never so per¬ 
fectly realized as after the Japanese exploit,— and marked her 
•out for partition. The process of dismemberment began without 
unnecessary delay. Germany, Russia, England, and France each 
demanded and received from China the cession or lease of a port. 
The press in Europe and America began openly to discuss the 
impending partition of the Chinese Empire and to speculate as 
to how the spoils would be divided. 

Suddenly the whole Western world was startled by the intelli¬ 
gence that the European legations at Peking were besieged by a 
Chinese mob aided by imperial troops. Then quickly followed a 
report of the massacre of all the Europeans in the city. 

Strenuous efforts were at once made by the different Western 
nations, as well as by Japan, to send an international force to the 
rescue of their representatives and the missionaries and other 
Europeans with them, should it chance that any were still alive. 
Not since the Crusades had so many European nations joined in 
a common undertaking. There were in the relief army Russian, 
French, British, American, and German troops, besides a strong 
Japanese contingent. The relief column fought its way through 
to Peking and forced the gates of the capital. The worst had not 
happened, and soon the tension of the Western world, which had 
lasted for six weeks, was relieved by the glad news of the 
rescue of the beleaguered little company of Europeans. 


§ 912] 


RUSSO-JAPANESE WAR 


651 


All which it concerns us now to notice is the place which this 
remarkable passage in Chinese history holds in the story of Euro¬ 
pean expansion which we have been rehearsing. The point of view 
to which our study has brought us discloses this at once: The 



insurrection had at bottom for its 
causethedeterminationof the Chinese 
to set a limit to the encroachments 
of the Western races, to exclude all 
foreign influences, to prevent the dis¬ 
memberment of their country, to pre¬ 
serve China for the Chinese. All the 
various causes that have been as¬ 
signed for the uprising are included 
in this general underlying cause. 

912. The Russo-Japanese War 
( 1904 - 1905 ). Early in the year 1904 
war opened between Japan and 
Russia. Respecting the fundamental 
cause of this conflict, little need be 
added to what has already been said 
in the preceding pages. Soon after 
Russia had forced Japan to give up 
Port Arthur and the territory in Man¬ 
churia ceded to her by the terms of 
the treaty with China after the Chino- 
Japanese War of 1894 (sect. 910), 
she herself secured from China a lease 
of the most "strategic portion" of 
this same territory, and straightway 
proceeded to transform Port Arthur 
into a great naval and military 

fortress, which was to be the Gibraltar of the East. Moreover, she 
occupied the whole of the great Chinese province of Manchuria. 
Notwithstanding she had given solemn pledges that the occupation 
of this territory should be only temporary, she not only violated 
these pledges but made it evident by her acts that she intended, 


Fig. 144. Field Marshal, 
Oyama. (From stereography 
copyright, 1904, by the H. C. 
White Company, New York) 
















652 


CHECK TO EUROPEAN EXPANSION 


[§913 


besides making Manchuria a part of the Russian Empire, also 
to seize Korea. But Russian control of this stretch of seaboard 
and command of the Eastern seas meant that Japan would be 
hemmed in by a perpetual blockade and her existence as an 
independent nation imperiled. It would place her destiny in 
the hands of Russia. Japan could not accept this fate, and drew 
the sword. 

The sanguinary war was signalized by an unbroken series of 
astonishing victories for the Japanese on land and on sea. They 
assumed practical control of Korea, and under Field Marshal 
Oyama wrested from the Russian armies under Kuropatkin the 
southernmost portion of Manchuria. Port Arthur, after one of 
the longest and most memorable sieges of modern times, was 
forced to capitulate. 1 

The strong Russian fleet in the Eastern waters at the beginning 
of hostilities was virtually destroyed. A second great fleet sent 
out from the Baltic Sea was met in the Korean Straits by the 
Japanese fleet under Admiral Togo, and the greater part of the 
ships were sunk or captured. 2 

Through the mediation of President Roosevelt peace envoys 
of Russia and Japan were now brought together at Portsmouth, 
in the United States, and the war was ended by what is known 
as the peace of Portsmouth. 3 

913. Some Results of the War; Establishment of the 
Chinese Republic. The war had momentous results. It lifted 
Japan to the position of a great power. It set limits to European 
encroachments in eastern Asia, and established the doctrine of 

1 January n, 1905. The siege was conducted by General Nogi and Admiral Togo; 
the defense of the place was made bv General Stoessel. A little later this same year 
was fought the great battle of Mukden, in which the Japanese were victors. 

2 In the sea fight of Tsushima, May 27-29, 1905. The Russian fleet was commanded 
by Admiral Rojestvensky. 

3 The treaty was signed September 5, 1905. Among the important articles of this 
treaty were the following : (1) Permission to Japan to make Korea her ward (the country 
was annexed to the Japanese Empire in 1910); (2) the evacuation of Manchuria by both 
the Russians and the Japanese; (3) the transfer to Japan by Russia of all her rights at 
Port Arthur and Dalny; (4) the division of the Manchurian railway between Japan 
and Russia; (5) the cession by Russia to Japan of the southern part of the island 
of Sakhalin. 




qfjTSK 


Sdlv^aliu 

lsSand 


'BlagovestcWensk 


Khabarovsk 


Ts/tSihar 


La rerouse Strait 


Hakoda 


Hirosak, 


——JX Lia I 

£gin I 
^ur/of 
J’ec/t i/i 


iVen-san 


6?"/) JCorea 

m 


Kian-chnn 1 

( Germany j 


ohama 


'/•'oJoit/Fus&n 


Saseho;^ 

Nagasa'k, 


Nanki 


Society Bay 

Milne I. 


Murchison I. 


OReef 


»y g' 

Sanshan-tau 


’or l Artliur 


Scale of Miles 


Scale of Miles 


THE M -N. WORKS 















































































t 













§ 913] RESULTS OF THE RUSSO-JAPANESE WAR 653 

"Asia for the Asiatics." It gave assurance that the yellow race 
should not, like the red and the black race, become subordinate 
to the white race, but should, in self-determined and self-* 
directed activity, play an independent part in the history of 
future times. 

Especially important were the consequences of the war for the 
Chinese Empire. The effect upon China of Japan’s triumph 
over the giant Russian Empire was electric. A national conscious¬ 
ness was awakened, and important educational, moral, and govern¬ 
mental reforms were set on foot. The old system of education 
was done away with, and the sciences of the West were substituted 
for the ancient classics. Thousands of the Chinese youth sought 
the new knowledge in the schools of Japan, the United States, and 
Europe. In 1912 the Manchu dynasty, now weak, corrupt, and 
discredited by the circumstances of the Boxer trouble, was over¬ 
thrown, the ancient monarchy abolished, and a Republic, molded 
on that of the United States, proclaimed. 1 

Even more fateful was the war in its reaction upon Europe. 
In a way that has already been explained (sect. 883), it gave a 
great impulse to the Liberal movement in Russia. "Above all it 
[the Russian defeat] increased the self-confidence of Germany, 
and inspired her rulers with the dangerous conviction that the 
opposing forces with which they would have to deal in the ex¬ 
pected contest for the mastery of Europe could be more easily 
overcome than they had anticipated. To the Russian defeat 
must be attributed the blustering insolence of German policy 
during the next ten years, and the boldness of the final challenge 
in 1914. ^ 

References. Works of a general character : Morris, H. C., The History of 
Colonization , 2 vols. (has a good bibliography). Ireland, A., Tropical Coloniza¬ 
tion. Bryce, J., The Relations of the Advanced and the Backward Races of Man¬ 
kind. Gibbons, H. A., The New Map of Africa and The New Map of Asia. 
Muir, R., The Expansion of Europe. Hayes, C. J. H., A Political and Social 
History of Modern Europe, vol. ii, chaps, xxvii-xxx. 

1 The first president was Yuan Shih-K’ai (1912-1916). In 1915-1916 there was a con¬ 
spiracy to restore the monarchy, but the movement was defeated by a revolt in several 
of the provinces. 2 Muir, The Expansion of Europe, p. 239. 


654 


EUROPEAN EXPANSION 


[§913 


For the British Colonial Empire : Seeley, J. R., The Expansion of England. 
Caldecott, A., English Colonization and Empire. Bourinot, J. G., Canada 
tinder British Rule , 1960-1900. Jenks, E., History of the Australasian Colonies. 
• Bryce, J., Impressions of South Africa. Layelle, C. F., and Payne, C. E., 
Imperial England , chaps, vii-xii. 

For Europe in Africa: Johnston, H. IE, A History of the Colonization of 
Africa. Stanley, IE M., Through the Dark Continent , 2 vols., and The Congo 
and the Bounding of its Tree State. Keltie, J. S., The Partition of Africa. 
Milner, A., England in Egypt . Hughes, T., Livingstone. Hazen, C. D. t 
Modern European Histo/y , chap, xxviii. 

For Russia in Asia : Kennan, G., Siberia and the Exile System , 2 vols. 
SKRINE, F. IE, The Expansion of Russia, / 815-1900. 

For the Far East: Griffis. \Y. E., The Mikado's Empire , 2 vols., and 
The Japanese Nation in Evolution. Asakawa, The Russo-Japanese Conflict. 
Reinsch, P. S.. World Politics at the End of the Nineteenth Century as 
influenced by the Oriental Situation. 


CHAPTER LXXVI 

EVOLUTION TOWARD WORLD FEDERATION 

For I dipt into the future, far as human eye could see, 

Saw the Vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be; 

Till the war-drum throbb ; d no longer, and the battle-flags were furl'd 
In the Parliament of man, the Federation of the world. — Tennyson 

914 . Introductory. "It is a favorite maxim of mine,” writes 
Professor Seeley in his Expansion oj England, "that history, 
while it should be scientific in its method, should pursue a prac¬ 
tical object. That is, it should not merely gratify the reader’s 
curiosity about the past but modify his view of the present and 
his forecast of the future. Now if this maxim be sound, the his¬ 
tory of England ought to end with something that might be called 
a moral. Some large conclusion ought to arise out of it; it ought 
to exhibit the general tendency of English affairs in such a way 
as to set us thinking about the future and divining the destiny 
which is reserved for us.” The inspiring destiny for England 
which Professor Seeley reads in her past and present history is 
Imperial Federation,— that is, a great federal union embracing 
the motherland, her colonies and dependencies. 

Professor Seeley’s maxim must needs be applied to universal 
history if its study is to issue in anything really worthy and 
practical. We must try to discover the tendency of the historic 
evolution, to discern the set of the current of world events, and 
to divine the destiny reserved for the human race. Only thus 
shall we be able to form practical ideals for humanity and to strive 
intelligently and hopefully for their realization. 

915 . The Movement toward World Unity. Now, there is 
no tendency in universal history, broadly viewed, more manifest 
than the tendency toward world union. From the first appearance 
of man on the earth, the trend of human evolution has been 

655 



656 EVOLUTION TOWARD WORLD FEDERATION [§916 

toward a united world, a world organized for common effort and 
common achievement. In the beginning, the largest independent 
group was the clan. Then came the tribe, a group of clans; 
and then, in those regions where civilization made its first gains, 
appeared the city-state, as we find it in the Mesopotamian lands, 
in Syria and Palestine, in Greece and Italy, at the dawn of the 
historic age. For upwards of a thousand years the city-state was 
the ultimate political unit in the Mediterranean lands, which 
before the rise of the [Macedonian power and the great extension 
of the Roman authority were the seat of hundreds of these little 
independent political communities. Then came the great nation¬ 
states of modern times, which since the break-up of the Roman 
Empire have been slowly created through the unification of tribes, 
cities, and petty principalities. 

During recent times a state of an essentially new type has 
arisen among these nation-states,— the federal state, of which our 
Union, consisting of forty-eight states, and the Swiss Confedera¬ 
tion are typical. Especially noteworthy is it that during the past 
century the British Empire, through the federalization of Canada. 
Australia, and British South Africa, and the new relation that 
England has assumed toward the various elements of her widely 
extended dominions, has lost the characteristics of an "Empire” 
and has become, or is becoming, what may rightly be called a 
Federal Commonwealth. The significant thing about this federal 
movement is that the logical issue of national federalism is inter¬ 
national federalism. The United States of America foreshadows 
the United Nations of the World. 

916. Preparations in Different Domains for a Universal 
League of Nations. In truth, during the century preceding the 
World War, in different realms the required conditions for a 
federation of all the nations of the earth had been largely created 
by humanity’s advance and achievements. In the political realm 
all that the age-spirit had accomplished would seem to have had for 
its ultimate aim the preparing of the way for international feder¬ 
ation. More than a century ago Immanuel Kant, in his essay on 
Perpetual Peace , affirmed that a prerequisite for the federation 


§ 916 ] PREREQUISITES OF A WORLD LEAGUE 657 

of the world was the establishment by all the nations of a repub¬ 
lican form of government. If we recall what the union of the 
autocratic governments of Europe in the Holy Alliance meant 
(sect. 814), we shall understand Kant. A world union of des¬ 
potic governments would be the tomb of liberty, individual and 
national,—a world-wide autocratic despotism. 

When Kant wrote his plea for peace, autocratic government 
prevailed almost everywhere in Europe. We have seen how during 
the century following the Congress of Vienna the democratization 
of governments not only on that continent but almost everywhere 
went on apace, bringing the management of public affairs more 
or less completely into the hands of the people. Thus, before the 
outbreak of the World War the first required condition of a uni¬ 
versal league had been largely met in the case of a great part of 
the nations and communities of the civilized world. 

A second significant preparation, during the period under review, 
for world organization was the federation movement, of which 
we spoke in the last section, for federalism supplies the principle 
which may be applied to international organization without en¬ 
dangering the principle of home rule and legitimate national 
sovereignty, since it deprives the uniting states, as exemplified in 
our Union, of nothing save that lawless freedom which they have 
used to do one another hurt and harm. 

While the basis of a universal federation was thus being laid 
in the political domain through the incoming of democracy and 
federalism there was going on in the moral world an even more 
important preparation for world union. There was growing up 
what has been called the international mind; men were begin¬ 
ning to think in world terms. There was, further, a deepening 
and strengthening, not universally, as we shall learn, but gen¬ 
erally and in the world at large, of the sentiment of human 
kinship, of international justice and solidarity. There was devel¬ 
oping, too, a new international conscience, a conscience which 
affirms that the principles of morality are the same for nations as 
for individuals. In this moral movement there was the promise 
and guarantee of a new world order. 


658 EVOLUTION TOWARD WORLD FEDERATION [§‘917 

At the same time that these movements, so significant for world 
unity, were going on in the political and moral realms, in the physi¬ 
cal domain wonderful discoveries and inventions,— the steam 
railway, the steamship, the telegraph, the telephone, wireless teleg¬ 
raphy, the airship, and a hundred others,— through the practical 
annihilation of time and space, were drawing the once isolated 
nations close together, and thus were making not only possible but 
increasingly necessary and inevitable international organization. 

917 . The First Hague Conference (1899). Even prior to the 
World War much had been accomplished in the way of the crea¬ 
tion of the machinery for a world league of states. Just as the 
nineteenth century was closing Tsar Nicholas II surprised the 
world by proposing to all the governments having representatives 
at the Russian court the meeting of a conference "to consider 
means of insuring the general peace of the world and of putting a 
limit to the progressive increase of armaments which weigh upon 
all nations.” 

All the governments addressed, twenty-six in number, accepted 
the proposal and on the 18th of May, 1899, the Convention met 
in the famous " House in the Woods ” at The Hague, in the Nether¬ 
lands. Owing to the opposition of Germany any action looking 
toward the general limitation of armaments was prevented. But 
the Convention did succeed in the establishment of a permanent 
International Court of Arbitration to which all nations might have 
recourse for the settlement of interstate disputes. 1 

918 . The Second Hague Conference (1907). A second inter¬ 
national conference met at The Hague in 1907. Forty-four of 
the fifty and more sovereign and independent nations of the world 
were represented. One of the important achievements of the con¬ 
ference was the adoption of a proposal made by the delegates of 
the United States for the establishment of an International Court 
of Arbitral Justice, as a genuine court of law with permanent 

1 Andrew Carnegie, recognizing the importance of the work of the Convention, 
made a gift of St.500.000 for the erection at The Hague of a permanent home for the 
Court. The imposing structure is known as the "Temple of Peace. ,, Prior to 1914 a 
number of international disputes which might have led to war were adjusted by the 
Court. 


§ 918 ] THE SECOND HAGUE CONFERENCE 659 

judges, to stand by the side of the Court of Arbitration created 
by the First Hague Conference. The jurisdiction and rules of 
procedure of the court were agreed upon, but unfortunately no 
agreement as to the number and mode of selection of the judges 
could be reached. However, a long step had been taken in the 
judicial organization of the world. Had the court been fully 
constituted and the submission to it of international disputes been 
made obligatory,— again it was the stubborn opposition of Ger¬ 
many that thwarted every effort to this end,—it is possible that 
the great tragedy which overwhelmed Europe in 1914 would have 
been averted. 

The action of the conference respecting the periodic meeting 
of representatives of the nations was as follows: "The conference 
recommends to the powers the reunion of a third peace conference, 
which shall take place within a period analogous to that which has 
elapsed since the preceding conference, at a date fixed by common 
agreement among the powers.” A true world legislature was in 
process of formation. 

Seven years after the close of the sessions of the Second Hague 
Convention the evolutionary movement toward world organi¬ 
zation was, in a way that could hardly have been foreseen,— 
through the agency of the most titanic and devastating war in 
human annals,—given a great impulse, and thereby the goal of a 
federated world brought measurably nearer. This amazing and 
dramatic passage in universal history we shall briefly summarize 
in the next chapter. 

References. Fiske, J., American Political Ideas , lect. iii,Manifest Destiny.” 
MARBURG, T., League, of Nations. HoLLS, F. W., The Peace Conference at The 
Hague (a record of the Conference of 1S99). White, A. D., The First Hague 
Conference. Hull, W. I., The Poo Hague Conferences. Choate, J. H., The 
Two Hague Conferences. SCOTT, J. B. (Ed.), American Addresses at the Second 
Hague Peace Conference. Bridgman, R. L., World Organization and The First 
Book of World Lazo. Minor, R« C., A Republic of A T ations. Lawrence, T. J., 
The Society of Nations. Pollock, F., The League of Nations. 


1 


CHAPTER LXXVII 

THE WORLD WAR 
(1914-1918) 

I. CAUSES OF THE WAR AND TRAIN OF PRECEDING 

EVENTS 

919 . The War’s Place in History. In the midsummer of 1914 
— henceforth one of the memorable dates of history — there broke 
out in Europe a war which at once involved five of the great 
powers of that continent and ultimately almost the whole of the 
civilized world. It will help us to realize the significance of this 
stupendous conflict and to assign it its true place in universal 
history if we first note carefully its relation to the tendencies 
and world-wide movements which we have traced in the fore¬ 
going pages. 

The episodes of this great war will appear in their right per¬ 
spective and its place in history will be revealed only when it is 
viewed as the latest act in the long drama of what we have called 
the Political Revolution, of which the outstanding fact before 
this upheaval of 1914 was the French Revolution of 1789. 

As we have seen, two of the fundamental principles proclaimed 
by the Revolution were the principle of popular sovereignty, or 
government by the people, and the principle of nationality, or the 
right of every nation to be master of its own destiny (sect. 811). 
Now, these basic principles of the Revolution were the essential 
principles for which the nations fighting against Germany and 
her allies in the World War contended. This determines the place 
in history of the great conflict. It was the culmination of that 
dual democratic and nationalistic movement which has given chief 
significance to the later periods of history. This place in the his¬ 
torical evolution which we assign the war will be seen to be its 

660 


§ 920] 


DIVINE-RIGHT KINGSHIP 


661 


real place if we look more closely, as we shall now proceed to 
do, at the main causes and vital issues of the great struggle. 

920 . Divine-Right Kingship again and the Democratic 
Movement. During the nineteenth century the revolutionary 
idea of government by the people made conquest, as we have 
learned, of a great part of the world. Unhappily there were in 
central Europe two states, Prussia and Austria, which repudiated 
the liberal principles of the Revolution and, under the mask of 
parliamentary forms, remained the upholders of the old dis¬ 
credited regime of autocratic government. Of these two states 
Prussia alone, as the dominant power, need be noticed by us here. 

In an earlier chapter we saw how the royal Prussian House 
of Hohenzollern was raised by Prince Bismarck, through a policy 
of "blood and iron,” first to the headship of Germany and then 
to the imperial dignity. We also noticed the accession of the 
young Emperor William II, the third of the Hohenzollerns to 
wear the imperial crown. The following utterances reveal the 
spirit and temper of his government: " I alone am master here; 
who opposes me I shall crush” (a sentiment expressed by the 
young Emperor at the time he "dropped his pilot,” Prince Bis¬ 
marck). "We Hohenzollerns take our crown from God alone, 
and to God alone we are responsible in the fulfillment of duty.” 1 
"The spirit of the Lord has descended upon me because I am the 
Emperor of the Germans. I am the instrument of the Almighty, 
his sword, his agent. Woe and death to all those who oppose 
my will.” 2 

Now, this is exactly the language of the divine-right Stuarts of 
England and the pre-revolutionary Bourbons of France, 3 whose 
arrogant assumptions and unbearable tyranny did so much to 
provoke the English and the French Revolution. The ideal of 
government, the mode of thinking, shown by these declarations 

1 This was not merely Emperor William’s personal interpretation of the German Con¬ 
stitution. The eminent German historian Eduard Meyer had said, "The power of Ger¬ 
many’s monarchs must be unlimited, and they cannot therefore be responsible to man 
but to God alone.” 

2 Proclamation by the Emperor to the army of the East at the beginning of the 

World War. 3 Cf. sects. 650, 665, 669. 


662 


THE WORLD WAR 


[§ 921 


was one of the deeper causes of the World War—for civilization 
cannot exist half autocratic and half democratic—and was what 
made it possible for President Wilson, when, in the third year of 
the unprecedented conflict, the United States entered the war, 
to define it as fundamentally a struggle between democracy and 
autocracy and to declare our aim and purpose in entering the 
war to be "to make the world safe for democracy.” 1 

921 . German Imperialism and the Nationalist Movement. 
It was not only the spirit of democracy but also the spirit of 
nationalism that was at work in the world at large during the 
hundred years and more preceding the World War. This period 
witnessed the rise and establishment of many nation-states, large 
and small,— Greece, Rumania, Serbia, Bulgaria, Italy, and Ger¬ 
many. But while the world, broadly viewed, was being recon¬ 
structed in accordance with this great principle of nationalism and 
was advancing toward true democratic internationalism, toward 
a world-wide federation of free and equal nations, the new Ger¬ 
many, under Prussian influence and dominance, was relapsing 
into archaic imperialism and scheming for world dominion. "I 
hope it will be granted to our German Fatherland,” these are the 
words of Emperor William II, "to become in the future as closely 
united, as powerful, and as authoritative as was once the Roman 
world-empire.” 

This dream of world domination, military, political, and indus¬ 
trial, was not the dream of the Hohenzollern Emperor alone; it 
was the dream of an influential party in Germany made up of 
militarists, Junkers, professors, publicists, and industrial magnates, 
known as Pan-Germanists. 2 There were in this group those who 
openly urged that Germany should gain this position of dominance 
through a deliberately provoked European war, specific aims of 


1 That this was the real character of the war was at first obscured by the fact that 
autocratic Russia was an ally of the liberal governments of western Europe; but when, 
in 1917, the Romanoff dynasty was overthrown and Russia proclaimed a republic, though 
the democratic republic was short-lived, the real issues involved became clear. 

2 A prominent representative of this circle was the militarist, General Friedrich 
von Bernhardi, whose work entitled Germany and the Next JVar, published in 1911, 
had a great influence in arousing an aggressive war spirit in Germany. 


§ 922] 


GERMAN IMPERIALISM 


663 


which should be the destruction of France as a great power, the 
break-up of the British Empire, and the acquisition by Germany 
of coveted districts and colonies of the subjected nations. 

That the war was a supreme struggle between militaristic im¬ 
perialism and nationalism was not at first clearly perceived by 
those remote from its arena. But as the war progressed, the real 
issues involved were more and more clearly revealed, so that when, 
finally, the United States entered the war on the side of the 
Allies, President Wilson could declare a chief object of the war 
to be "to deliver the free peoples of the world from the menace 
and the actual power of a vast military establishment controlled 
by an irresponsible government which, having secretly planned to 
dominate the world, proceeded to carry out the plan without 
regard either to the sacred obligations of treaty or the long- 
established practices and long-cherished principles of international 
action and honor.” 1 

In a word, the war was a tremendous conflict in which the free 
peoples of the world fought to prevent the setting up of a revived 
Roman Empire that threatened to become, like Napoleon’s em¬ 
pire, the tomb of the nations. So here again, in its relation to 
nationalism, is disclosed the relation of the World War to the 
Political Revolution. 

922 . Some German Pre-War Doctrines. But the war was 
something more than a conflict between autocracy and democ¬ 
racy, something more than a conflict between imperialism and 
nationalism. It was, further, a conflict of ideals, of irreconcilable 
philosophies of life and history, in which were imperiled the moral 
gains of centuries of human progress. This statement calls for 
an examination of some German pre-war ideas and teachings. 

We have seen how profound an influence philosophic ideas 
exerted upon the inception and the course of the French Revo¬ 
lution (sect. 739). Even more determinative in precipitating and 
giving character to the World War were certain ideas and doc¬ 
trines inculcated by pre-war German militarists, publicists, and 
leaders in German thought. Among these ideas was the conception 

1 Reply to the Pope’s Peace Proposals, August 27, 1917. 


664 


THE WORLD WAR 


[§ 922 


that the German people are a superior race ordained to world 
dominion. During the decades following the Franco-Prussian War 
of 1870-1871 this notion became a fixed element in the stock of 
ideas of an influential section of the German people. Here are 
some utterances of Emperor William II: "We are the chosen 
people”; "God created us that we might civilize the world”; 
"We are the salt of the earth.” And thus speaks Rudolf Eucken, 
distinguished professor of philosophy at Jena: "We have the 
right to say that we form the soul of humanity, and that the 
destruction of the German nature would rob the world of its 
deepest meaning.” With like assurance Ludwig Woltmann, a dis¬ 
tinguished German scientist, declares, "The Teutons are the 
aristocracy of humanity ; . . . the Teutonic race is called to circle 
the earth with its rule.” 

These utterances are significant because they were common¬ 
places, that is, merely typical expressions of ideas and sentiments 
that formed a characteristic element of a considerable body of 
German thought two or three decades preceding the outbreak of 
the World War. 

What made this notion of. German superiority in race and 
culture a menace to the peace of the world was that many of 
those entertaining this idea conceived it to be the mission of the 
German people to spread the superior German civilization over 
the earth by force of arms if necessary, and thus to make Ger¬ 
many the "mother country of the future civilization of the world.” 

Another dangerous German teaching was that war is a neces¬ 
sary and divinely ordained factor in human history, and a legiti¬ 
mate means of national aggrandizement. "War,” said the militarist, 
Friedrich von Bernhardi, "is not only a biological law but a moral 
obligation, and as such an indispensable factor in civilization.” 
"War,” said Marshal von Moltke, "is an element of the order 
of the world established by God. . . . Without war the world 
would stagnate and lose itself in materialism.” It was this phi¬ 
losophy of war which, blinding the German people to the insanity 
and criminality of aggressive war, had much to do in letting loose 
upon Europe the immeasurable calamity of the World War. 


§ 923 ] 


THE BERLIN-BAGDAD RAILWAY 


665 


Still another evil-breeding doctrine taught by many German 
pre-war philosophers was that the state in its relation to other 
states is not bound by the ordinary rules of morality, and that 
war may be waged without regard to treaties or international law, 
without sentiment, pity, or mercy. Translated into practice in the 
World War by the German militarists, this monstrous doctrine 
that war may be waged without regard to the restraints of law, 
humanity, or conscience produced that German policy of " fright¬ 
fulness ” which more than any other one thing aroused and arrayed 
against the Imperial German Government the greater part of the 
civilized world and made the war on the part of the allied and 
associated powers a fight not only for democracy and nationalism 
but also for the preservation of the precious moral heritage of 
civilization. 

Having now indicated the place in universal history of the World 
War, pointed out its deeper causes, and noticed some German 
ideas and teachings which lay at the bottom of the lawless and 
inhuman methods of the German military authorities in the con¬ 
duct of the war, we will next trace the course of events that, dur¬ 
ing the early years of the twentieth century, marked the drift of 
Europe towards the abyss of the great catastrophe. 

923 . " Mittel-Europa” and the Berlin-Bagdad Railway. We 
have spoken of the Pan-Germanists’ dream of world domination. 
For the realization of this dream leading Pan-Germanists, long 
before 1914, had formed a definite and far-seeing plan. The main 
feature of the scheme was a projected union or federation of states 
(" Mittel-Europa ”) embracing Germany, Austria-Hungary, and 
the Balkans,—a great wedge of lands dividing Europe into two 
parts and, with the Turkish Empire as an Asian extension, stretch¬ 
ing from the North Sea to the Persian Gulf. 1 

An important part of this stupendous project was the construc¬ 
tion of a railway from Constantinople across Asia. Minor and 
Mesopotamia to Bagdad, and thence to some point on the Persian 
Gulf. Concessions for the building of this road were secured by 
Germany from the Ottoman government just at the opening of 

l See map, p. 686. 


666 


THE WORLD WAR 


[§ 923 


the twentieth century. The road was far advanced toward com¬ 
pletion by 1914. The line was known as the Bagdad Rail¬ 
way. In connection with lines in Europe the road was to give 
rail communication between Berlin and Bagdad, and hence 
the entire project was known as the Berlin-Bagdad Railway. 



The location of the Asian stretch of this Berlin-Bagdad Rail¬ 
way should be carefully noted. It follows closely the ancient mili¬ 
tary and trade route between the East and the West. Control of 
this highway gives control of Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, Syria, 
Palestine, and Egypt. Controlled by Germany, it menaced not 
only British authority in Egypt and India but also Russian in¬ 
terests in Persia and Asia Minor. It was this which made the 
German project a matter of such international concern and ren¬ 
dered it such an influential factor in bringing on the World War 
and in extending the operations of the war into Mesopotamia 
and Palestine. 




































§ 924 ] GERMANY BECOMES A SEA POWER 667 

924 . Germany becomes a Sea Power. Even before the close 
of the nineteenth century Germany, already the greatest military 
power in Europe, turned her attention toward the sea. 1 The Kaiser 
declared: "Our future lies on the water. . . . The trident must 
pass into our hands.” A great German merchant marine was 
created, and a vast overseas trade developed. To protect her 
extended commerce in the event of war and to further her ambi¬ 
tious world policy, Germany began the creation of a navy. At the 
opening of the twentieth century her war fleet was second only to 
that of Great Britain. The British government became alarmed. 
The insular^security of Great Britain was menaced, for, with only 
a small army, she must hold command of the seas to be safe. 
A keen competition between the two nations in naval construction 
began. In this rivalry there was a distinct menace to world peace, 
since Germany repelled every proposal made by Great Britain 
for mutual limitation of naval armaments. 

925 . The " Triple Entente” or Good Understanding, between 
Great Britain, France, and Russia. Germany’s constant increase 
of her navy, and her ambition for world domination as disclosed 
by the utterances of the German militarists and ruling classes, 
deepened the fears of Great Britain and caused her to abandon 
her policy of keeping aloof, in "splendid isolation,” from Conti¬ 
nental alliances, and to enter into what was in effect, though not 
in name, a defensive alliance with France and Russia. In 1904 
she settled all her long-standing troubles with France and reached 
a cordial understanding with her. 

Three years later Great Britain effected with Russia a like 
adjustment of all their conflicting interests in Persia, central Asia, 
and elsewhere. Great Britain now gave up all opposition to 
Russia’s ambition to secure control of the waterways of the 
Bosphorus and Dardanelles. It was Germany now, with her am¬ 
bitious projects in Asian Turkey and her Bagdad Railway, that 
seemed to menace British interests in Egypt and India. Hence 
Great Britain’s earlier opposition to Russian purposes was now 
directed against German plans of expansion eastward. 

1 The Kiel Canal was opened in 1895. 


668 


[§926 


.THE WORLD WAR 

These settlements and arrangements completed what is known 
as the Triple Entente, or good understanding, between Great 
Britain, France, and Russia. 1 This accord between these ancient 
rivals was a matter of world-wide importance, for though it was 
purely a measure of defense against the German menace, Germany 
saw in it only evidence of unfriendly intentions and a plot for her 
"encirclement” and destruction. 

The six great powers 2 were now aligned in two groups, the 
members of each group so bound together by alliances or under¬ 
standings that a conflict arising between any two states of the 
opposing groups was almost certain to bring on a general Eu¬ 
ropean war. This is what helped to make so extended and so 
colossal the disaster that overwhelmed Europe in 1914. 

926. First Moroccan Crisis (1905). Simultaneously with the 
formation of the Triple Entente, Morocco, a "decadent” state, 
became the subject of a serious international controversy. The 
collision of interests here was between Germany on the one hand 

1 

and France and Great Britain on the other. France had set her 
heart on the possession of this country in order to round out her 
African empire. When, in 1904, Great Britain and France entered 
into a mutual good understanding, this was one of the things 
settled. An agreement was reached whereby France gave Great 
Britain a free hand in Egypt in return for a free hand for herself 
in Morocco. 

The next year the German Emperor landed in his yacht, the 
Hohenzollern , at the Moroccan port of Tangier and made ad¬ 
dresses to the German traders there which were meant for other 
ears besides theirs. His utterances were notice to Great Britain 
and France that in all arrangements and conventions respecting 
the remaining free states of the world Germany must be consulted. 
This was merely a reaffirmation of a previous declaration that 
nothing of importance in the world at large should be arranged 
without the consent of Germany and the German Emperor. 

1 France and Russia had drawn together and formed in 1891 a defensive alliance 
known as the Dual Alliance. 

2 The Triple Alliance, it will be recalled, embraced Germany, Austria-Hungary, and 
Italy (see sect. 873). 


$ 927 ] 


THE BALKAN PROBLEM 


669 


France,— though she felt that Germany’s intervention was un¬ 
justifiable,—being uncertain of the armed support of Great 
Britain and knowing that her other ally, Russia, because of the 
defeat she had just suffered at the hands of Japan (sect. 912) was 
powerless to help her, made humiliating concessions to Germany 
and agreed to the calling of an international convention to review 
the whole matter. The outcome of this meeting 1 was favorable 
for France. The representatives of the nations recognized her 
special and superior interest in Morocco and commissioned her 
to maintain order in that country. 

This Moroccan affair is a landmark in history, one of the 
•outstanding facts of the decade preceding the outbreak of the 
World War. The crisis created by Germany’s manner of inter¬ 
vention had, it is true, been passed safely, but important con¬ 
sequences resulted from her action. The good understanding 
between Great Britain, France, and Russia was cemented. It 
now became something like a real alliance. On the other hand, 
Germany’s prestige had received a severe blow, and this 
caused her hatred of Great Britain, which had taken the side 
•of France in the international convention, to become more intense 
.and bitter. 

927 . Some Factors of the Balkan Problem. Our attention is 
mow directed to southeastern Europe, where was laid the train 
which started the frightful conflagration of the World War. The 
situation here at the opening of the twentieth century was be¬ 
wildering in the variety of the motives and interests of the 
peoples and governments concerned, but it will become in a meas¬ 
ure intelligible if we bear in mind the following dominant facts: 
First, the situation was one which concerned the relations of 
the several small Balkan states to Turkey. The Turkish provinces 
adjoining these little states contained more than two million Chris¬ 
tian Greeks, Bulgarians, and Serbians who longed for liberation 
from Ottoman oppression and for union with their emancipated 
^brethren. 

I The Convention of Algeciras, 1906. It was suggested by President Theodore 
Roosevelt. 


670 THE WORLD WAR [§ 927 

? I 

Second, the situation was one which concerned more or less 
closely several of the great powers. Russia’s old ambition to con¬ 
trol the waterways leading from the Black Sea to the Aegean was 
not only still active but was now more urgent than ever before, 
because her defeat by Japan had denied her a warm-water port on 
the Pacific. Great Britain no longer barred her way, but Germany 
was now interested in keeping these waterways out of her hands, 
since the Muscovite seated on the Bosphorus would imperil Ger¬ 
man interests in Asia Minor and obstruct the great German project 
of a Berlin-Bagdad Railway. 

Then the ambition of the Slav state of Serbia to unite all the 
people of Serbian race in a Greater Serbia, with outlets on the 
Adriatic and the TEgean, was a menace to the integrity of Austria- 
Hungary, for the neighboring provinces of the dual monarchy were 
largely Serbian in race and in sympathies and would inevitably 
gravitate toward an enlarged and prosperous Serbia. In a word, 
Serbia was just such a present danger to Austria in the Balkans 
as Sardinia had been to her possessions in northern Italy in the 
nineteenth century. Just as Sardinia drew to herself the Italian 
subjects of Austria, so now Serbia threatened to draw to herself 
all the Serbian subjects of Austria-Hungary. Thus a Greater 
Serbia threatened the dismemberment of the Austro-Hungarian 
Monarchy. Moreover, the establishment of a powerful Serbian 
state meant that Austria’s coveted way to the TEgean would be 
barred. 

Besides the several interests of Russia, Germany, and Austria- 
Hungary in the Balkan problem, still another of the great powers, 
Italy, was deeply concerned. Italy desired possession of Italia 
irredenta , "unredeemed Italy,” which embraced lands on her 
northern Alpine frontier and about the head of the Adriatic, of 
which the population was largely Italian, but which were held by 
Austria just as once she held Lombardy and Venetia. Further¬ 
more, Italy was watchful to see that, with the Turks driven out 
of Europe, Austria should not appropriate Albania as her part of 
the booty and thus get possession of the eastern shore of the 
Adriatic and make of that sea an Austrian lake. 


§ 928 ] THE TURKISH REVOLUTION 671 

These mutual jealousies, rival ambitions, and conflicting inter¬ 
ests of the great powers created the Balkan problem in so far as 
it was an international question concerning Europe at large. 

928. The Young Turks; the Turkish Revolution (1908). 
The situation in the Balkans being such as is portrayed in the 
preceding section, a remarkable movement in the Turkish Em¬ 
pire became the prelude to events of world import. In 1908 a 
revolution inaugurated by a party calling themselves Young Turks 
broke out in European Turkey. Gaining control of the Balkan 
army, the leaders of the party demanded and secured from the 
Sultan Abdul Hamid a constitution which created a parliament 
and gave to all the subjects of the Sultan equal civic rights and 
complete religious liberty. The news of the granting of a consti¬ 
tution was received by the subjects of the Sultan first with utter 
incredulity, and then, when the news was confirmed, with un¬ 
paralleled demonstrations of joy. The world looked on with 
amazed and sympathetic interest. 

Unfortunately there was a lack of capable leaders in the party 
of reform. The promise of equal rights to all was not kept. The 
Young Turks could not give up their position as the dominant and 
privileged race of the empire. They set about the forcible "Turki- 
fication” of all the non-Turkish peoples — the Greeks, the Arme¬ 
nians, the Albanians, the Bulgarians, and the Arabs—of the 
Ottoman dominions. Meanwhile the treacherous Abdul Hamid 
broke faith with the revolutionists and worked secretly to get rid 
of the constitution and to regain his despotic power. 1 

929. The Bosnian Crisis (1908). But an even more serious 
obstacle in the way of the success of the reform movement than 
these internal weaknesses and dissensions was the sordid greed of 
several of the great powers, who saw in a regenerated Turkey the 
ruin of all their hopes of ultimately inheriting coveted portions of 
the "sick man’s” estate. His recovery was the very last thing 
they desired. Austria, fearing that if the Young Turks succeeded 

i Abdul Hamid, after having instituted atrocious massacres of the Christians at 
Adana and other places in Asian Turkey, was deposed, and his brother was placed on 
the throne (1909). 


672 


THE WORLD WAR 


[§ 930 


in establishing a reformed and strong government she would lose 
control of Bosnia and Herzegovina, of which Turkish provinces 
she had been made administrator by the Treaty of Berlin, annexed 
the provinces to the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy (1908). This 
was a gross violation of the terms of the Berlin treaty and the 
direct beginning of the great tragedy of 1914. 

Serbia, who had hoped that the provinces, their population 
being largely Serbian in race and language, would fall to her on 
the passing of the " sick man," felt grievously injured by Austria’s 
act, and made vigorous protest, but unavailingly ; for when Rus¬ 
sia and Great Britain also protested, Emperor William took his 
stand, in "shining armor," 1 by the side of Austria and upheld her 
in her wrongful procedure. Neither Russia nor any other of the 
great powers being ready to risk precipitating a general European 
war through intervention by force of arms, the provinces remained 
in Austria’s hands. 

Another great crisis had been passed, but not without Europe 
being drawn nearer to the abyss. By a gesture of the "mailed 
fist" Emperor William had settled to his own and his ally’s ad¬ 
vantage a matter of European concern. But there was danger 
in settling matters of that kind in such a manner. 

930. The Second Moroccan Crisis (1911). We have seen hour 
at the time of the first Moroccan crisis France was commissioned 
by the powers to preserve order in the country. Unfortunately- 
the native government was inefficient and corrupt, hence the 
inevitable happened. The country fell into anarchy. A French 
army was soon at the capital, Fez, and one of the rival contest¬ 
ants for the crown placed himself under French protection. This 
meant, of course, that Morocco’s existence as an independent 
state was ended. 2 

At once a German warship appeared at one of the country’s 
ports, 3 and the German Emperor asked France what compensation 
she would allow Germany in return for a free hand in Morocco. 
After long and heated "conversations"—Great Britain with her 

1 A phrase used by the Kaiser in a later speech. 

2 The country became a French protectorate in 1912. 3 Agadir, 1911. 


§931] 


THE BALKAN WARS 


673 


navy ready for action supporting France, since she could not per¬ 
mit Germany to secure a foothold on the shore opposite Gibraltar 
— the Emperor consented to the establishment of a protectorate 
over Morocco by France in return for the cession to Germany 
of portions of the French possessions in equatorial Africa. * 

Thus, by threat of war Germany had enlarged her African pos¬ 
sessions, but her relations with France had been greatly embittered, 
for the French denounced her action as blackmail, holding that 
German interests in Morocco were not of a nature to justify the 
intervention of Germany in the matter. 

931 . Xhe Balkan Wars (1912-1913). The example set by 
Austria in 1908 in the seizure of the Turkish provinces of Bosnia 
and Herzegovina was shortly followed by Italy. 1 A regenerated 
Turkey threatened to make an end of the long-cherished hope of 
the Italians that Tripoli and Cyrenaica in North Africa would fall 
to them as ripened fruit on the dissolution of the Ottoman Em¬ 
pire. So the Italian government resolved to seize at once the 
coveted prize, justifying this action on the ground that the Young 
Turks were treating unfairly Italian settlers and traders in the 
country. An expedition was launched, and the provinces were 
seized and annexed to Italy (1911). » 

The Austrian and Italian attacks upon the integrity of the 
-Ottoman Empire naturally excited the small Balkan states and 
helped to bring them to an epoch-making decision. Bulgaria, 
Serbia, Montenegro, and Greece formed an alliance (the Balkan 
League), the aim of which was to make an end of the Turkish 
power in Europe. The adventure turned out beyond all expecta¬ 
tion. To the amazement of the world the armies of the little 
states in a few weeks drove the Turks from almost all their 
possessions on the European continent. 

Unfortunately the Balkan allies, interfered with by Austria and 
others of the great powers in the division of the regained lands, 

1 Other slates had earlier followed her example. Two days after Austria had an¬ 
nounced her decision to annex Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria proclaimed her com¬ 
plete independence from the suzerainty of the Ottoman Porte. Straightway the island 
-of Crete, still under nominal Turkish suzerainty, declared for union with Greece (1908). 
Crete’s union with Greece was sanctioned by the Treaty of London, 1913. 


674 THE WORLD WAR [§ 932 

7 . S. 

fell to fighting among themselves in what is known as the Second 
Balkan War. The only outcome of this lamentable struggle that 
we need note here is the territorial aggrandizement of Slavic 
Serbia. This meant, of course, the enhancement of Russian 
influence in the Balkans, since racial sentiment would naturally 
cause Serbia to draw toward the great mother Slav state. 

On the other hand, a Greater Serbia was a menace to Austria, 
for a powerful Serbia would not only block her way to the .Egean 
but would naturally draw away or make more restless Austria’s 
subjects of Serbian race, thereby tending to bring about the dis¬ 
integration of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. 

Furthermore, an enlarged Serbia under Russian influence and 
protection was something that the German Emperor could not 
brook, since it lay across the Berlin-Bagdad Railway and was a 
menace to that project and thus to the whole Pan-German scheme 
for the commercial and political domination of western Asia. 

932 . Assassination of the Crown Prince of Austria; "the 
Fateful Twelve Days.” It was inevitable that, in the circum¬ 
stances which we have described, Austro-Serbian relations should 
become strained to a dangerous tension. Events moved rapidly. 
While visiting the recently annexed province of Bosnia, the Aus¬ 
trian crown prince — the Archduke Francis Ferdinand — and his 
wife were assassinated. 1 Austria, charging that Serbian officials 
were accomplices of the assassins, addressed to Serbia an ulti¬ 
matum, 2 some of the demands of which were incompatible with 
the rights of Serbia as a sovereign and independent state. An 
answer was demanded in forty-eight hours. Serbia returned a con¬ 
ciliatory reply, acceding to most of the demands and offering 
to submit either to the International Tribunal at The Hague or 
to the judgment of certain of the great powers the points to which 
she could not give unqualified assent. The reply was pronounced 
unacceptable, and Austria, supported in her course by Germany, 
declared war against Serbia. 3 

The action of Austria created alarm in every European capital. 
Strenuous efforts were made by Great Britain, France, and Russia 

1 At Sarajevo, June 28, 1914. 2 July 23, 19x4. 8 July 28, 1914. 























































































SI 









































' 



















§ 932 ] 


"THE TWELVE FATEFUL DAYS” 


675 



to stay Austria s hand and to have the whole question brought 
before a conference of the great powers not directly interested or 
carried to the Hague Tribunal, for nothing was more certain than 
that an attack by Austria upon Serbia would precipitate a gen¬ 
eral European war, because Russia would not and could not stand 
aloof and see the little Serbian nation crushed, since this would 
mean German supremacy in 
the Balkans. But Germany, 
rejecting all proposals, insisted 
that the matter concerned 
Austria and Serbia alone and 
that there should be no inter¬ 
vention by any of the other 
powers. 

Austria having actually at¬ 
tacked Serbia, Russia ordered 
a general mobilization of her 
armies. Germany thereupon 
sent an ultimatum to Russia 
demanding that she demobilize 
within twelve hours. Russia 
giving no response, Germany 
declared war against her. 1 

At the same time Germany 
asked the French Premier, 

Viviani, whether in the event 
of a Russo-German war France 
would remain neutral. His reply was that " France would take such 
action as her interests might require.” Almost immediately the 
German troops crossed the French frontier. 2 On August 2 Germany 
presented an ultimatum to Belgium, declaring it to be her purpose 
to march across Belgian territory to attack France and promising, 
if the passage of the German troops were not opposed, to guarantee, 
upon the conclusion of peace, the independence and integrity of 
the Belgian kingdom, but at the same time warning the Belgian 


© Harris & Ewing 

Fig. 145. Albert, King of the 
Belgians. (From a photograph) 


2 Germany declared war on France August 3, 1914. 


1 August 1, 1914. 








676 


THE WORLD WAR 


[§ 932 


government that if the advance of the German forces was impeded 
in any way, the German government would deal with Belgium as 
an enemy. King Albert, supported in his heroic decision by his 
ministers, first reminding Germany that she herself had solemnly 
promised to respect Belgian neutrality, refused to consent to the 
passage of the German army, saying that the Belgian government 
"by accepting the proposal would sacrifice the honor of the Bel¬ 
gian nation while at the same time betraying its duties toward 
Europe.” The German troops at once swept into Belgium. 

The violation of Belgium brought Great Britain into the war. 1 
On August 4 the British ambassador at Berlin received instruc¬ 
tions to inform the Imperial German Government that if assur¬ 
ance was not given by twelve o’clock that night that the German 
advance into Belgium would be stopped, the British government 
would " take all steps in their power to uphold the neutrality of 
Belgium and the observance of a treaty to which Germany was 
as much a party as themselves.” The German Chancellor, 
Bethmann-Hollweg, greatly agitated, expressed pain and surprise 
that the British government should take such a resolve "just for 
a word, 'neutrality’—just for a scrap of paper.” 

The Imperial German Government’s reply to the British ulti¬ 
matum being that it was absolutely necessary that the German 
armies should advance into France "by the quickest and easiest 
way, so as to be able to get well ahead with their operations and 
endeavor to strike some decisive blow as early as possible,” Great 
Britain at once drew the sword. 

Thus, by the close of August 4, only twelve days after Austria’s 
ultimatum to Serbia had become known to the British, French, 
and Russian governments, five of the great powers were at war. 
The curtain had lifted on "the most tragic drama of human 
history.” 

1 Though the invasion of Belgium by the Germans actually brought Great Britain 
into the war, it is certain that she would, as the ally of France, have taken part in it even 
if the neutrality of Belgium had not been violated. She could not have stood aside 
while Germany was striking down Trance, robbing her of her colonies, and making of 
her a vassal state. 


§ 933] 


THE VIOLATION OF BELGIUM 


677 


II. OUTSTANDING EVENTS OF THE WAR 

933 . The Violation of Belgium. The German plan of cam¬ 
paign was simple. With a swift blow France was to be struck 
down before her allies could come to her aid; then Russia, which 
Austria was to hold in check while the German armies were 
overrunning France, was to be put out of the war. But the 
French frontier toward Ger¬ 
many, from Switzerland to 
Luxemburg, was strongly for¬ 
tified, and the reduction of 
these defenses would delay for 
at least several weeks the ad¬ 
vance of the German troops 
into France; hence the pro¬ 
posal made by Germany to 
the Belgian government for an 
unobstructed passage of the 
German armies through Bel¬ 
gium. We have seen how, 
upon the indignant rejection 
of this dishonorable proposal, 
the German troops were flung 
across the frontier in utter dis¬ 
regard of treaty obligations 
and of international law. The 
crime was confessed in self- 
indicting words by the German Chancellor, Bethmann-Hollweg. 
In announcing to the Reichstag the invasion of Belgium, he said : 
" Gentlemen, we are now in a state of necessity, and necessity 
knows no law. Our troops have occupied Luxemburg and per¬ 
haps are already on Belgian soil. Gentlemen, that is contrary 
to the dictates of international law. . . . The wrong — I speak 
openly — that we are committing we will endeavor to make good 
as soon as our military goal has been reached.' 71 

1 This speech was made August 4, 1914. 



© Harris & Ewing 


Fig. 146. Cardinal Mercier of 
Belgium. (From a photograph) 









678 


THE WORLD WAR 


[§ 933 


The first obstacle to the advance of the German forces was the 
strongly fortified city of Liege. In a few days the defenses of the 
place, which had been thought impregnable, were pounded into 
dust by the monstrous siege guns of the enemy. 

The resistance of the Belgians roused a fury of rage in the 
Germans, who now began a campaign of " frightfulness ” ( Sc-hreck- 

lichkeit ), the purpose of 
which was to terrorize the 
people and make them sub¬ 
missive to the German will. 
Villages and cities, indi¬ 
vidual citizens of which it 
was alleged had fired upon 
the German soldiers, were 
sacked and burned, and 
hundreds of noncombat¬ 
ants— men, women and 
children—were indiscrimi¬ 
nately slain. Hostages were 
shot for the alleged acts of 
persons over whom they 
had no control. Priests were 
killed. The famous univer¬ 
sity and library of Louvain 
were wantonly destroyed, 
and a large part of the city 
itself laid in ashes. The 
world stood aghast at these 
crimes, for it had been be¬ 
lieved that the time was past when the armies of any civilized 
government would commit such atrocities, to which there is no 
parallel in history since the Thirty Years’ War. 

The brave resistance of the Belgians to the passage of the 
German armies had momentous consequences. The delay, short 
though it was, that it caused the Germans not only gave the 
French time to concentrate their forces and throw them to the 



Used by permission of the Proprietors of London Punch 


Fig. 147. The Kaiser. So you see — 
you’ve lost everything. 

Albert, King of the Belgians. 
Not my soul. 




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Longitude West from Oreem ylcL 0 Longitude Eaadrfrom Qaeeu-Wicii AO 










































































§ 934 ] 


"THE MIRACLE OF THE MARNE” 


679 


north between the invaders and Paris but it also gave England 
time to come to the aid of her ally with a small but efficient 
force. It thus made possible the great victory of the Marne. 

934. "The Miracle of the Marne” (September 5-9, 1914). 
Along the Franco-Belgian frontier the German invaders were met 
by the French and British armies. Their stubborn resistance to 
the German advance, however, was broken, and the victorious 
Germans pushed on toward Paris. The French government fled 
to Bordeaux. It seemed as though the story of 1870 were to be 
repeated. But with the enemy almost within sight of the capital, 
the French general, Joffre, halted the retreat of his forces along 
the southern banks of the river Marne, and there, near the region 
where, more than fourteen hundred years before, the savage hordes 
of Attila were turned back by the Romans, the Franks, and their 
confederates , 1 inflicted a memorable and disastrous defeat upon 
the invaders. The Germans retreated to the river Aisne, nearly 
halfway to the Belgiap frontier, and there intrenched themselves. 

The battle of the Marne is rightly given a place—perhaps 
it should be the first place—among the decisive battles of 
the world. It saved not only France but all Continental Europe 
from German domination, for nothing is more certain than 
that, if France had lost at the Marne, Russia would have been 
quickly overrun by the German armies and German military 
and political control of the Continent would have been firmly 
established. 

935. The Struggle for the Channel Ports. The Germans had 
failed in their plans to reach Paris and put France out of the war. 
They now made a supreme effort to reach the sea and get control 
of the Channel ports on the shore opposite England. With these 
ports in the hands of the enemy the safety of England would, of 
course, have been imperiled. Strenuous efforts were made to pre¬ 
vent such a calamity. British, French, and Belgian forces were 
quickly thrown between the Germans and the coveted prize. These 
land forces were aided by the British fleet, which patrolled the 
coast. In the Flanders region the sluices were opened and wide 

1 See sect. 332. 


68 o 


THE WORLD WAR 


[§936 


tracts of the land flooded — an old device for defense in these low- 
lying lands. The struggle was long and bitter. Some of the bloodi¬ 
est battles of the war were fought here . 1 The British army, "a 
contemptible little army,” as it was characterized by the German 
Kaiser, was virtually annihilated after deeds of valor which made 
of the epithet of scorn a badge of immortal honor . 2 Though the 
Germans reached the sea at Ostend and gained control of a strip 
of Belgian coast they were thwarted in reaching their main objec¬ 
tive— the ports of Calais and Boulogne, at the narrowest part of 
the Channel. 

936. The Western Battle Front. After the battle of the Marne 
and at the end of the struggle for the Channel ports, the Germans, 
still standing in the main on French and Belgian soil, intrenched 
themselves along a line nearly five hundred miles in length, run¬ 
ning from Switzerland to the North Sea. Facing the German 
trenches were drawn the trenches of the Allies. Never before 
in history was there such a far-flung battle line. Between the 
opposing lines of ditches, dugouts, and wire entanglements ran 
a strip of ground varying in width from a few hundred yards 
in some places to several miles in others, known as "No Man’s 
Land”—a name which suggests much of the tragedy of the 
World War. 

For about a year and a half the French, aided by a small num¬ 
ber of British and Belgian troops, held back the German masses 
along this extended line, while a new British army, numbering sev¬ 
eral millions, was being raised, trained, and equipped ; and then 
for another like period the Anglo-French-Belgian forces manned 
the trenches until the United States, which early in 1917 had 
entered the war, was mustering, drilling, and transporting to 
France a great army of over two million men. 

During these three years the fighting along this western front 
was in the nature of siege operations. Many offensives, or drives, 
were launched by both the Germans and the Allies in efforts to 

1 The most important were the battle of the Yser and the first battle of Ypres. 

2 The survivors of this expeditionary army proudly accept the title of " The Con- 
temptibles.” 


§ 93 7J 


THE EASTERN FRONT 


681 


push back or break through the opposing line, but at the end of 
the three years the lines, though in some places they had been 
bent and pushed toward Germany, in general ran substantially as 
at the beginning of the period. 

The story of this trench warfare on the western front belongs 
to the military records of the war and cannot be dwelt upon here. 
We shall merely, a little later, preserving the chronological order 
of our narrative, speak briefly of one of the offensives undertaken 
by the Germans and mention another launched by the British, 
which were such supreme efforts as to make them of epochal 
importance. 1 

937. The Eastern Front; Russian Victories and Reverses 
(1914-1915). We must now turn our attention to the eastern 
front. Just at the moment when the Germans were threatening 
Paris, the Russians came to the aid of their French ally by sending 
two armies into East Prussia and menacing Berlin. One of the 
invading armies was met and almost annihilated by the German 
general, Hindenburg. 2 The other army then drew back to the 
frontier. 

This defeat of the Russians in East Prussia was offset by their 
victories over Austria in Galicia. 3 Three great Austrian armies 
were routed and three hundred thousand prisoners taken. The 
military power of Austria seemed on the point of absolute col¬ 
lapse. But with the coming of Germany to the rescue of her ally, 
the tide was quickly turned. A great victory for the Central 
Powers 4 saved Austria and crippled seriously the military power 
of Russia. A wide strip of western Russia, including Poland, fell 
into the hands of the Germans. As earlier in the west so now 
here in the east there resulted finally a deadlock, and the contend¬ 
ing armies settled down to trench warfare. 

1 See sect. 941 and p. 685, n. 4. 

2 At the battle of Tannenberg, August 3, 1914. Early the next year in the battle of 
the Mazurian Lakes, East Prussia, General Hindenburg inflicted upon the Russians a 
second decisive defeat with immense losses in killed and prisoners. 

3 Lemberg (now Lwow) was taken by the Russians about September 1,1914 ; Przemysl 
fell into their hands in early March, 1915, with 125,000 prisoners. 

4 The battle of the Dunajec, early May, 1915, as decisive a victory for Germany as the 
battle of the Marne was for France. 


682 


THE WORLD WAR 


L§ 938 


Thus Germany at the end of campaigns covering about a year 
and a half had failed as to her main purpose both in the west 
and in the east. Neither France nor Russia, though each had 
received a terrible blow and lost much territory, had been put 
out of the war. 

938 . The Sinking of the Lusitania (May 7 , 1915 ). On 

February 4, 1915, the German government announced that every 
merchant vessel of the Allies entering a designated zone around 
the British Isles would be destroyed, "without its being always 
possible to avert the dangers threatening the crews and passengers/’ 
This meant that such vessels would be sunk without warning. 

Now, to do the thing the German government announced it was 
going to do would be not only to violate the principles of humanity 
but to disregard the law of nations, which forbids the destruction 
of passenger or merchant ships under any circumstances before 
the crews and passengers have been put in a place of safety. 

Notwithstanding a solemn warning from President Wilson that 
the United States government would hold the German government 
to a " strict accountability ” if such action as it purposed to take 
should result in the death of any American citizens, the German 
submarines straightway proceeded to sink merchant vessels with¬ 
out warning, and in several instances destroyed the lives of Ameri¬ 
can citizens. Then on May 1, 1915, there appeared in American 
newspapers an advertisement issued by the German Embassy in 
Washington, in which all persons were warned against taking 
passage on the British steamship Lusitania , which was about to 
sail from New York for an English port, it being intimated that 
every effort would be made by German submarines to sink the 
liner. No attention was paid to the warning, as no one believed 
that any civilized government would do the thing that the Im¬ 
perial German Government threatened to do. 

On the evening of May 7, 1915, as the Lusitania , with crew 
and passengers numbering about two thousand, neared the Irish 
coast, she was torpedoed without warning, and more than a thou¬ 
sand persons, among them many women and little children, were 
drowned. 1 his awful crime created horror and indignation 


§ 939] 


ITALY ENTERS THE WAR 


683 


throughout the civilized world. The United States demanded of the 
German government a disavowal of the act and assurance that 
the operations of its submarines would in the future conform to 
the requirements of international law. But it was only after a 
long delay and the exchange of numerous notes that the German 
government finally gave the following pledge: " Liners will not be 
sunk by our submarines without warning and without providing 
for the safety of the lives of non-combatants, provided that the 
liners do not try to escape or offer resistance .” 1 

It was the withdrawal of this solemn pledge by the Imperial 
German Government that, as we shall learn, was the immediate 
cause of the United States entering the war early in 1917 on 
the side of the Allies. 

939 . Italy enters the War (May 23, 1915). Although a mem¬ 
ber of the Triple Alliance, Italy did not join Germany and Austria 
in the war, because she was convinced that the war against Serbia 
was an act of aggression on the part of Austria, and since the 
alliance of which she was a member was merely a defensive, and 
not an offensive, alliance, she was not bound to come to the aid 
of her allies. 

In truth Italy’s alliance with Austria was an altogether un¬ 
natural one, for Austria was the hereditary enemy of the Italian 
people. Instead of fighting for the extension of Austrian rule 
and the enhancement of Austria’s influence and power in the 
Balkans, the Italians were rather minded to take advantage of 
her embarrassment and fight for the liberation of the still un¬ 
redeemed Italian lands 2 (Italia irredenta). Negotiations were 
begun by the Italian government with Austria for her withdrawal 
from these districts. But no agreement could be reached, and Italy 
entered the war on the side of the Allies. A new battle front 
was thus created. For the next two years and more this front 


1 This pledge was given September i, 1915. 

2 Italy’s decision was influenced in part by other motives than the desire to complete 
the work of Italian unity. Recognizing the real character of the great struggle she 
wished part in the defense of liberalism and civilization. Furthermore, there was among 
the Italians an imperialistic party who through Italy’s participation in the war hoped to 
secure Italian dominance in the Adriatic and the eastern Mediterranean. 


684 


[§ 940 


THE WORLD WAR 

was the scene of much hard mountain fighting, in which the Italian 
armies wrested from Austrian control much of the coveted lands. 
Then came a great disaster, of which we shall speak later, and the 
loss of all that had been gained, and much besides. 

940. The War in the Southeast in 1915 ; Serbia and Turkey. 
We have noted how the close of the year 1915 saw Germany’s 
main war aims both in the west and in the east unattained 
(sect. 937). In the southeast, however, by the end of the year 
Germany had completely realized her plans. What she wanted 
here was to secure Austro-German supremacy in the Balkans and 
to keep unobstructed her railway route to the Persian Gulf. All 
this she achieved in a terrible drive against Serbia and through 
aiding Turkey in the defense of the Dardanelles. 

The Serbian situation at the beginning of this offensive was 
as follows: At the opening of the war in 1914 Austria had in¬ 
vaded Serbia and taken the capital, Belgrade. After severe fighting 
the Serbians had retaken their capital and driven the Austrians 
from Serbian soil. Germany then came to the aid of her ally, and 
a strong Austro-German army in cooperation with a large Bul¬ 
garian force — Bulgaria having joined the Central Powers — 
quickly overcame all Serbian resistance. 1 The Serbian army, in 
one of the most distressful retreats in history, fled southward over 
the Albanian mountains, amidst the snows of a bitter winter, and 
the remnant who escaped capture or death from exposure found a 
refuge in the island of Corfu. Serbia was made a second Bel¬ 
gium. Montenegro, which fought with Serbia, was involved in 
Serbia’s ruin. 

There were still other misfortunes to deepen the gloom that 
darkened for the Allies the close of the year 1915. An attempt 
made early in the year by an Anglo-French fleet to reach Constan¬ 
tinople by forcing the Dardanelles 2 had ended in disaster. This 

1 An Anglo-French army which had been gathered at the Greek port of Saloniki was 
outmatched and, hampered by the fear of Greek treachery in its rear, was unable to 
render the Serbians any effective aid. 

I urkey had entered the war in November, 1914, on the side of the Central Powers. 
Her action was motived, in part, by fear of her hereditary enemy, Russia, in the event 
of the triumph of the Allies. The year following her entrance into the war witnessed 


§941] 


"THEY SHALL NOT PASS” 


685 


failure of the fleet was followed by an equally ill-fated land 
attack, 1 in which Australian and New Zealand troops won special 
distinction. After having suffered great privation and tragic 
losses, the allied forces were withdrawn. 2 

941 . Verdun—"They shall not pass.” The event of greatest 
military importance in 1916, the third year of the war, was the 
German offensive — really a trench battle that lasted nearly a year 
— against Verdun, on the west front. 3 'Russia having been de¬ 
feated and the German situation in the Balkans made secure, 
Germany now turned to strike another blow at France in the hope 
of breaking either the French line or the French spirit and thus 
putting France out of the war before Great Britain’s new army 
was drilled, equipped, and in the field. 

The blow was aimed at Verdun, an ancient French fortress. 
The attack began early in the year. The stout watchword of the 
French was, "They shall not pass.” The Germans, after the first 
rush, made for several months only slow foot-by-foot advances ; 
and then the French, taking the offensive, quickly drove them 
from practically all the ground which they had occupied. The 
losses of the Germans in killed, wounded, and prisoners are esti¬ 
mated to have exceeded a quarter of a million. This French 
victory was second only to that of the Marne. 4 

the massacre by the agents of the Turkish government and fanatical Moslem mobs of 
nearly a'million Christian Armenians, men, women, and children, in the Asian districts 
of the empire. Retribution for this diabolical crime awaited the end of the war. 

1 On the peninsula of Gallipoli. 

2 In January, 1916. 

3 The matter of supreme naval importance was the battle of Jutland, in the North Sea 
(May 31), a fight between the British and German battle fleets, ■' the greatest conflict in 
naval history” (Simonds). The issue confirmed England’s mastery of the sea. 

4 At the same time that the Germans launched their great offensive at Verdun the 
Austrians made a menacing attack through the Trentino. To relieve the pressure on their 
allies, Russia and Great Britain started offensives. Russia, having recovered more quickly 
than was thought possible from her defeat in 1915, attacked Austria and took 400,000 
prisoners. This forced the Austrians hastily to withdraw their troops from Italy for the 
defense of their eastern frontier. In Asia Minor the Grand Duke Nicholas set on foot a 
campaign against the Turks, overran Armenia, and captured the important cities of 
Erzerum and Trebizond. 

The British, or rather Franco-British, drive is known as the first battle of the Somme. 
This was one of the great battles of the war —a trench battle, which lasted from July 1 to 
November 30, 1916. The enemy’s lines were so shaken that the Germans were forced to 


686 


[§942 


THE WORLD WAR 

942. Rumania enters the War and is ruined. Midsummer of 
the year 1916 saw the fortunes of the Central Powers at their 
lowest ebb. It seemed as though the ultimate defeat of the two 
empires was certain. At this important juncture Rumania entered 
the war, 1 making the tenth nation arrayed against the Central 
Powers. Her aim in throwing herself into the struggle was to 



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Territories occupied or virtually controlled by Germany at the beginning of 1917. The 
Pan-German project of a Mittel-Europa (sect. 923) is here actually realized 


realize national unity for the Rumanian race by the liberation 
from the Austro-Hungarian yoke of the several million Rumanians 
of Transylvania and other territories. 

Rumania’s action simply added another to the many tragedies 
of the great war. Betrayed, or at least not supported as she should 
have been, by Russia, the little state was quickly crushed by the 
German armies and a great part of her territory occupied. 2 The 

retreat to what is known as the H indenburg Line. This movement, however, was not made 
until the spring of 1917. The territory given up was wantonly and ruthlessly devastated 
by the retreating Germans. 

1 August 27, 1916. 


2 The campaign was not completed until 1917. 


























§ 943 ] GERMAN SUBMARINE OPERATIONS 


687 


tragic collapse of Rumania gave an entirely different aspect to 
the German situation and prospects. Germany’s mastery of the 
continent now seemed assured. 

943. The German Government announces its Purpose to 
resume Unrestricted Submarine Operations (January 31 , 1917 ). 

We have noted the submarine controversy between the United 
States and Germany (sect. 938). The pledge given the United 
States by the German government not to torpedo liners without 
first caring for the safety of crew and passengers was only par¬ 
tially kept for about a year and a half. Then Germany gave notice 
to the United States government that it would immediately do 
away with the restrictions which up to that time it had impressed 
upon its use of its submarines. This meant that all ships entering 
designated areas in the Mediterranean or a zone drawn around 
the British Isles would be sunk on sight and without regard to 
the safety of the persons they carried. 1 

The answer of the United States government to this amazing 
announcement was to hand the German ambassador, Bernstorff, 
his passports. 2 This meant the severance of all diplomatic rela¬ 
tions with the Imperial German Government. In an address of 
great dignity and earnestness President Wilson informed the Con¬ 
gress of the step he had taken. The address was in effect a warn¬ 
ing to the Imperial German Government not to do the thing it 
had threatened to do. 

944. Germany seeks Alliance with Mexico against the 
United States. The feeling of intense indignation aroused in the 
people of the United States against the Imperial German Govern¬ 
ment by its criminal submarine policy was just at this time greatly 
intensified by the publication of a letter of instructions from the 
German Minister of Foreign Affairs, Zimmermann, to the German 
minister in Mexico, dated January 19, 1917, and running as fol¬ 
lows: "On the first of February we intend to begin subma¬ 
rine warfare unrestricted. In spite of this, it is our intention to 

1 Permission was given to the United States to send one passenger liner a week to 
Great Britain, provided that it was marked in a certain way with stripes, departed on a 
specified day, and made the port of Falmouth in England its destination. 

2 February 3, 1917. 


688 


THE WORLD WAR 


[§945 


endeavor to keep neutral the United States of America. If this 
attempt is not successful, we propose an alliance on the following 
basis with Mexico: That we shall make war together and to¬ 
gether make peace. We shall give general financial support, and 
it is understood that Mexico is to reconquer the lost territory in 
New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona. You are instructed to inform 
the President of Mexico of the above in the greatest confidence 
as soon as it is certain that there will be an outbreak of war with 
the United States, and suggest that the President of Mexico, on 
his own initiative, communicate with Japan suggesting adhesion 
at once to this plan. . . . Please call to the attention of the 
President of Mexico that the employment of ruthless submarine 
warfare now promises to compel England to make peace in a few 
months.” 

The publication of this astounding letter, taken in connection 
with the German announcement of the resumption of unrestricted 
submarine warfare, made inevitable the entrance of the United 
States into the war on the side of the Allies. 

945 . The Russian Revolution (March 15 , 1917 ). While the 
United States, on the verge of war, was awaiting events, the at¬ 
tention of the world was arrested by one of the most remarkable 
revolutions in history. On March 15, 1917, Tsar Nicholas II, the 
reigning representative of the House of Romanoff, which had ruled 
despotically in Russia for over three hundred years, was forced 
to abdicate, and a provisional government was set up. 1 Amnesty 
was granted for political and religious offenses. Tens of thousands 
of exiles in Siberia and of prisoners in the fortresses of Russia 
were set free. Liberty of speech and of the press was proclaimed. 
All restrictions of a religious and racial character were abolished. 
Universal suffrage was decreed. A constituent assembly was to be 
called to draft a constitution. The news of the revolution was 
received by liberals everywhere with unbounded enthusiasm. The 

1 I he immediate cause of the revolution, aside from the widespread suffering of the 
people and general war-weariness, was the incompetence shown by the government in 
the conduct of the war, and the popular belief, which was well founded, that the defeats 
which the Russian armies had suffered were the result of treachery on the part of Russian 
officials of pro-German sympathies. 


§ 946 ] THE UNITED STATES ENTERS THE WAR 689 

United States straightway recognized the new government and 
welcomed Russia as a member of the family of free nations. 

Unfortunately the draught of liberty was too strong. The 
Russian people, suddenly freed from autocratic tyranny, were 
intoxicated. They were 
in a state of bewilder¬ 
ment. The provisional 
government made heroic 
but unavailing efforts to 
hold back the country 
from anarchy. The army 
fell into disorder and 
confusion. Of this col¬ 
lapse of Russia and her 
practical elimination as 
a military factor from 
the war we shall have to 
speak later. 

946 . The United 
States enters the War 
(April 6, 1917 ). On the 
second day of April, 

1917, President Wilson 
addressed both Houses 
of Congress, called in 
extraordinary session, on 
the results of the unre¬ 
stricted operations of the 
German submarines re¬ 
sumed two months be¬ 
fore. "The new policy,” he said, "has swept every restriction 
aside—vessels of every kind, whatever their flag, their char¬ 
acter, their cargo, their destination, their errand, have been ruth¬ 
lessly sent to the bottom without warning and without thought 
of help or mercy for those on board. . . . Even hospital ships 
and ships carrying relief to the sorely bereaved and sorely stricken 



Illustrated London News 


Fig. 148. The Last of the Romanoffs 
(From a photograph) 

After his abdication the ex-Tsar Nicholas 11 became 
a prisoner of the Russian revolutionary government. 
He was finally taken to Siberia, where he and his 
wife and children were murdered by the Bolshevists, 
who had seized supreme power. His seat here is 
the stump of a tree which he has just felled 








690 


THE WORLD WAR 


[§ 946 


people of Belgium . . . have been sunk with the same reck¬ 
less lack of compassion or of principle. . . . The present Ger¬ 
man submarine warfare against commerce is a warfare against 
mankind.” 

The President then advised the Congress that it "declare the 
recent course of the Imperial German Government to be in fact 
nothing less than war against the government and people of the 
United States [and] that it formally accept the status of belliger¬ 
ent which has thus been thrust upon it.” 

"We are glad,” he continued, "now that we see the facts with 
no veil of false pretense about them, to fight thus for the ultimate 
peace of the world and for the liberation of its people, the German 
people included ; for the rights of nations, great and small, and the 
privilege of men everywhere to choose their way of life and of obe¬ 
dience. The world must be made safe for democracy.” 

The Congress and the country were profoundly moved. Four 
days later, on the sixth of April, the House of Representatives by 
an overwhelming vote accepted a joint resolution, which had al¬ 
ready been passed by the Senate, and which declared that a state 
of war existed between the Imperial German Government and the 
government and the people of the United States. Thus was the 
momentous decision made, and the great American republic, 
without enthusiasm but with grave determination and with a good 
conscience, entered the World War. 

To the allied countries the action of the United States was a 
heartening affirmation of the righteousness of their cause and a 
sure guarantee of ultimate victory. On receipt of the news in 
England the Stars and Stripes were flung out alongside the Union 
Jack of Great Britain from the high tower of the Parliament 
Building at Westminster—"the first time,” it is said, "that a 
foreign flag was ever displayed from that eminence.” 

A few weeks later the first troops of an expeditionary force 
from the United States, under General Pershing, landed in France. 1 
They were received by the war-worn French people with frantic 
demonstrations of joy and gratitude. 

1 June 26, 1917. 




§ 947] 


EVENTS OF THE YEAR 1917 


691 



A fitting memorial of this historic hour are the simple words 
uttered by General Pershing at the tomb of Lafayette. Saluting, 
he said, Lafayette , nous voila! ("Lafayette, we are here! ”), thus 
compressing into a happy epigram " the story of an historic obliga¬ 
tion and its proud discharge.” 

947. Other Events of the Year 1917. After the decision of 
the United States government, in early April, to accept the status 
of a belligerent forced upon it 
by the acts of the Imperial Ger¬ 
man government, the remaining 
months of the year 1917 were 
spent by it in preparations for 
actual participation in the war. 

The best part of its navy was 
sent to European waters. Ten 
million men between twenty-one 
and thirty-one years of age 
were registered, from whom by 
selective draft a great army in 
successive installments of half 
a million or more was to be 
created, equipped, and drilled. 

Sixteen cantonments, each a 
veritable city capable of ac- 
commodating about forty thou¬ 
sand soldiers, were constructed 
and made ready for the new 
recruits by early autumn. To 
meet the cost of these preparations and the expense of building a 
great mercantile fleet of hundreds of vessels to replace those de¬ 
stroyed by the German submarines, and of constructing thousands 
of airships, as well as to provide for loans to our allies, Congress 
voted sums of money reckoned by billions. These vast amounts 
were raised by increased taxation and by the sale of bonds. 

In Europe the summer and fall months of the year witnessed 
military operations on all the battle fronts. In the west there was 


Fig. 149. General Pershing 
(From a painting by J. F. Bouchor, 
Official Painter to the French 
Armies) 











692 


THE WORLD WAR 


[§ 947 


practically continuous trench warfare, with hard-fought and costly 
offensives by both the French and the British armies, but the 
enemy lines were not broken through, and the year ended without 
any military decision on this front having been reached. 

In the east the Russian collapse became complete by midsum¬ 
mer. The army simply fell to pieces. Liberty had been pro¬ 
claimed, and to the simple peasant soldiers that meant that every 
one was free to do as he liked. Thousands left the trenches and 
returned to their homes. The empire disintegrated like the army. 
Finland, the Ukraine, and other districts or nationalities severed 
all relations with Petrograd and set up as independent republics. 
The provisional government established at Petrograd was over¬ 
thrown, and the reins of power passed into the hands of radical 
communists (Bolsheviki), who instituted a regime similar in some 
respects to that of the extremists of the French Revolution. The 
leaders of this radical revolution, Lenin and Trotzky, now opened 
peace negotiations with the Central Powers. 1 The year ended 
with these negotiations still in progress. 

The Russian collapse had serious results for the Italians. It 
allowed the Central Powers to transfer considerable forces from 
the eastern to the Italian front. A great offensive against the 
Italians resulted in the breaking of the Italian lines, which neces¬ 
sitated a retreat to the Piave River and the abandonment of all 
the ground that the Italian armies had gained in two years of 
arduous mountain campaigning. A part of Venetia also was lost 
to the invaders. 2 

In Asian Turkey the British forces made important advances 
during the year. In the early spring they captured the city of 
Bagdad, on the Tigris River, 3 and thus gained control of lower 
Mesopotamia. Toward the end of the year they wrested from 
the 1 urks the city of Jerusalem. The Holy City was thus restored 
to the Christian world after having been in the hands of the 

1 In December, at Brest-Litovsk. 

2 October and November, 1917. 

3 March 11, 1917. An earlier attempt to take the city had ended in failure and the 
capture of the entire British army of 10,000 men, under General Townshend, at Kut-el- 
Amara, below Bagdad on the Tigris River (April 29, 1916). 


§ 948] 


EVENTS OF THE YEAR 1918 


693 


Moslems since its capture by the Saracens in the year 637, ex¬ 
cepting the short period in the twelfth century when it was held 
by the crusaders. 

On the sea the German ruthless warfare against the merchant 
ships of the world was the matter of chief importance. Hundreds 
of ships of the Allies and of neutrals alike were sunk and thou¬ 
sands of lives of non-combatants destroyed. But this inhuman 
and lawless method of warfare resulted in much greater injury 
to Germany than to her foes. Shocking as it did the universal 
conscience, it turned virtually the whole civilized world against 
Germany. 

948 . Events of the Year 1918 ; the Armistice, November 11 . 

The peace negotiations which the close of the year 1917 saw in 
progress between Germany and the revolutionary leaders in Rus¬ 
sia left the once mighty Russian Empire, now fallen to pieces, 
entirely helpless in the hands of her conquerors. 1 With the pres¬ 
sure on the eastern front thus removed, General Ludendorff, now 
in supreme command of the German armies, transferred large 
bodies of troops from Russia to the western front, in hopes of 
gaining a military decision there before the United States could 
come with effective forces to the aid of her allies. 

With their armies in France thus strengthened, the Germans, 
late in March, launched their carefully prepared drive against the 
French and British. At the same time they began the bombard¬ 
ment of Paris with a monstrous long-range cannon, which was 
located seventy-five miles from the capital. A few days later a 
bomb from the huge gun fell upon a Paris church, where a large 
congregation was gathered at a Good Friday service, killing 
seventy-five persons and wounding ninety others. 

Under the terrific onset of the German armies the Franco- 
British lines were bent back with heavy losses, but were not 
broken. The situation was most critical. All the American sol¬ 
diers in France, under General Pershing, were offered to General 

1 The Brest-Litovsk Treaty, dictated by Germany, was signed by the representatives 
of the Bolshevik government of Lenin and Trotzky on March 2, 1918. I he Allies 
refused to recognize the treaty, regarding it as a settlement of violence and injustice, 
and one which laid all Asia open to German conquest and domination. 


694 


THE WORLD WAR 


[§ 948 


Foch—who was invested with the supreme command of the 
armies of the Allies—to be used as he should deem best. At 
the same time urgent appeal was made to the United States gov¬ 
ernment to hurry to France all the reenforcements possible. In 
response to this call the shipping of troops across the sea was 
hastened. A steady flow of about a quarter of a million men 


each month was maintained 



© Harris & Kwing 


Fig. i 50. Marshal Foch. (From 
a photograph) 

the superiority in numbers was 


il the close of the war, when the 
United States had in France a 
great army of over two mil¬ 
lions. The transportation over¬ 
seas of such a vast army was an 
unprecedented achievement, an 
achievement made possible only 
by the aid of British transports 
and the vigilant patrol of the seas 
against submarines by the British 
royal navy, now reenforced by 
the United States war fleet. 

Throughout the spring and 
early summer months the Ger¬ 
mans renewed their offensive at 
intervals and made further gains. 
But by the middle of July the 
drive had spent its force. The 
American army had by this time 
been so greatly augmented that 
)w on the side of the Allies. The 


tide of battle turned. A great counter-offensive was launched. The 
Germans were hurled back across the Marne. The so-called Hinden- 
burg Line, a fortified zone several miles wide, consisting of trenches, 
•caves, wire hedges, and machine-gun nests,—"like to nothing that 
ever was before in history,"—was broken through, and the Ger¬ 
man armies were forced to begin a general retreat from France 
toward the Belgian frontier. 

With the tide of battle on the western front thus running 
against the Germans, disaster was befalling their allies on other 












§ 948] 


EVENTS OF THE YEAR 1918 


695 


fronts. In Palestine the British forces under General Allenby, on 
the historic field of Armageddon, almost annihilated the Ottoman 
armies. The important cities of Damascus and Beirut fell into 
the hands of the British (October 2-9). At about the same time, 
on the Macedonian front, the Franco-Serbian forces inflicted upon 
the Bulgarian armies a defeat which, before the end of September, 
forced Bulgaria to sue for peace. This was granted on terms 
which meant a complete military surrender. 

The withdrawal of Bulgaria from the war, along with the re¬ 
verses in Syria and the critical situation on the western front, 
caused Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey simultaneously 
to ask through President Wilson for a general armistice "on 
land and water and in the air” (October 5). The armistice 
was to be the forerunner of peace negotiations based on four¬ 
teen propositions (central among which was that of the self- 
determination of peoples) which President Wilson had formulated 
in various addresses. 

After an exchange of notes between President Wilson and the 
Central Pow r ers, the matter was given over into the hands of the 
Supreme War Council of the Allies in France. Events now moved 
rapidly. Before the end of the month Turkey, hopelessly defeated, 
signed an armistice which amounted to unconditional surrender 
(October 30), and four days later Austria-Hungary, with her 
armies in Italy routed and the monarchy rapidly dissolving into 
its various racial elements, sought and obtained an armistice on 
like conditions. At the same time the terms on which Germany 
might be granted a cessation of hostilities were formulated by the 
War Council of the Allies at Versailles, and handed the representa¬ 
tives of the German government for acceptance or rejection by 
eleven o’clock, November n. A few hours before the expiration 
of the time limit the Armistice was signed by the German envoys. 
Among its conditions were these: (1) immediate evacuation by 
the German armies, without harm to persons or destruction of 
property, of all invaded countries, and withdrawal across the Rhine 
to a line about six miles from the right, or east, bank of that 
river; (2) the surrender of all submarines and certain other ships 


THE WORLD WAR 


[§949 


696 

of the German navy; 1 and (3) the immediate repatriation of 
allied prisoners and deported civilians, the restitution of property 
wrongfully taken from invaded countries, and reparation for 
damage done in occupied territories. 

These conditions were in effect equal to full and unconditional 
surrender, and were such as to make it impossible for Germany, 
at the expiration of the truce period, to renew hostilities. 

Shortly before the signing of the Armistice, Emperor William, 
his mad dream of world dominion shattered, sought an asylum in 
Holland. He left Germany the scene of turmoil, revolution, and 
threatened anarchy. 2 His flight was marked by a veritable " cas¬ 
cade of thrones.” In a few days there was not a king, duke, grand 
duke, or prince left reigning in Germany. 

949 . The United States in the War in 1918. While awaiting 
the meeting at Paris of the representatives of the victorious allied 
and associated nations for the formulation of treaties of peace with 
Germany and her allies, we will here interrupt our general nar¬ 
rative of events that we may speak more in detail of the war 
efforts of the United States and Canada and of the part played 
by the British navy and the German submarines in the war. 

We have seen how, as the German offensive in the early spring 
of 1918 assumed a menacing aspect, all the United States troops 
in France were put by General Pershing at the disposal of Com¬ 
mander-in-chief Foch. On May 27 the Germans launched their 
third drive and made a gain of ten miles, capturing Chateau- 
Thierry, on the north bank of the river Marne. They were now 
within about forty miles of Paris. A further advance of a few 
miles would put the city within reach of their guns. The situation 
was desperate. The American troops were hurried to the battle 

1 There was a total of seventy-one ships, including nine battleships. They were 
interned in Scapa Flow, Orkney Islands, Scotland, where, in violation of the obligations 
of the Armistice, they were scuttled by their German crews, June 21,1919. 

2 The German Revolution began at Kiel a few days before the signing of the Armi¬ 
stice. For a moment it looked as though affairs would fall into the hands of the com¬ 
munists, or " Reds,” as had happened in Russia. These extremists, however, were soon 
suppressed, and a constitution formed by a National Constituent Assembly, — which 
transformed, nominally at least, the German Empire into a "German Republic,”—was 
adopted July 31, 1919. 


§ 949 ] THE UNITED STATES’ PART IN THE WAR 697 


front. The yielding French lines were stiffened, and the Ger¬ 
man drive was checked. This marked the turn of the tide. The 
menace to Paris was removed. 

A few days later (June 6) a comparatively small body of Amer¬ 
icans, marines and soldiers, made an attack upon a forest tract, 
known as Belleau Wood, near Chateau-Thierry, which the Germans 



The Western Front, July 15, 1918 


‘had made into a veritable machine-gun nest. Only after three 
weeks’ bitter fighting did they succeed in clearing the forest of 
the enemy. This was almost wholly an American achievement, 
and in recognition of the feat the French government renamed 
the forest Marine Brigade Wood. 1 

While the American soldiers on the battle front were thus help¬ 
ing to stop the German drive, back of the lines great preparations, 

1 This was not the first American offensive. A little before this operation (on May 28, 
1918) a division made up of units of the Regular American Army had made a successful 
attack upon a strong enemy position at Cantigny, near Montdidier. 










THE WORLD WAR 


[§949 


698 

under the direction of American engineers and experts of every 
kind, were being made for the reception, training, and equipment 
of the greater armies yet to come from overseas. At selected base 
ports immense docks, warehouses, and storage plants were being 
hurriedly constructed ; at points farther inland great supply de¬ 
pots and acres of barracks were being erected ; artillery, aviation, 
and tank schools were being established ; training camps of every 
kind were being laid out, and immense hospitals with thousands 
of beds constructed and equipped ; hundreds of miles of spur rail¬ 
ways connecting the base ports and the multitude of camps, supply 
stations, and repair shops with the French system of railroads 
and with the long battle front were being laid out and pushed 
hurriedly to completion; in the French forests timber was being 
-cut by American woodmen ; and everywhere motor roads were 
being repaired and thousands of miles of telegraph and telephone 
wires were being strung. 

At the same time that all this was going on in France, the 
United States government, in response to the urgent appeals from 
the Allies for help, was, as we have seen, straining every resource 
to hasten the movement overseas of troops from the training 
camps. To refill the depleted home camps, a new registration of 
all men between eighteen and forty-five years of age was ordered 
(September 12). There were over twelve million registrants. 
The plan was to put in France by the early summer of 1919 an 
army of four million men, with a reserve of over a million in the 
home camps; for at this time there was no expectation on the part 
of the Allies of bringing the war to a successful end in 1918. The. 
best that they dared hope for was that they would be able to 
hold their lines through the summer and fall. 

The gathering and training of the man power of the nation — 

” the making of soldiers”—was but a small part of America’s 
work of preparation for the stern task ahead ; for although only a 
small proportion of the men of military age were actually partici¬ 
pating in the fighting, a large part of the population was engaged 
in one way or another with activities that were closely associ¬ 
ated with the war. This was so because modern warfare, besides 



Fig. i 5 i . The Rheims Cathedral of Today. (From a photograph) 

“The most majestic and revered memorial of the Great War.” The interior of the 
cathedral was virtually wrecked by the German bombardment 










































. 






































' 

















§ 949 ] THE UNITED STATES’ PART IN THE WAR 699 

requiring incredible quantities of military munitions such as 
powder and shells, calls for artillery, machine-guns, tanks, aircraft, 
engines, automobiles, motor trucks, and supplies and equipment of 
every kind without limit. Accordingly the greater part of the in¬ 
dustrial factories and manufacturing plants of the United States 
were now turned to the making of these things for the use of the 
vast armies that were being gathered and trained. 

It was a knowledge of the colossal scale of these preparations 
in America for the prosecution of the war to a successful issue, 
and the rapid transport, in spite of the submarine menace, of 
American soldiers by the hundreds of thousands to France, that 
doubtless, next to the successes of the armies of the Allies on the 
battle fronts, had most to do in breaking the German morale 
and thus causing the collapse of the German war-machine. 

On July 15 the Germans renewed their offensive — making 
their fifth and last drive — at the point on the Marne where they 
had been checked by the French and Americans in early June. 
They succeeded in crossing the Marne at some points and gaining 
a foothold on the south bank of the river. But the Americans were 
now on or near this battle front, between Paris and the enemy, 
three hundred thousand strong. The German drive was stopped, 
and then, on July 18, the Franco-American troops started a 
counter-offensive. The Germans were driven back across the 
Marne, and Chateau-Thierry, on its northern bank, was wrested 
from them. By August 5 the enemy had been pushed back all the 
way from the Marne to the Vesle, and the menacing Marne salient 
had been completely wiped out. 1 

The flattening of the Marne salient was followed by the wiping 
out of the famous St. Mihiel salient, on the border of Lorraine, 
near the great fortress of Metz. This was the last menacing 
German wedge on the western front. The Germans had held this 
salient ever since their first advance in 1914- They had fortified 
it in every possible way, so that it was deemed impregnable. The 
capture of this salient was the first great military undertaking of 

1 These operations (July 15-August 5) constitute what is known as the second battle 
of the Marne. 


THE WORLD WAR 


[§ 949 


700 


the Americans acting alone. The operation was carried out by the 
First American Army, a larger American force—it numbered 
over four hundred thousand—than "had ever before taken part in 
any single battle in American history.” In less than two days 
after the offensive was launched (September 12) the salient was 
cleared of the enemy, of whom more than fifteen thousand were 
taken prisoners. 

The moral effect of this achievement was tremendous, and it 
was hailed by the Allies, especially by the French, with un¬ 
bounded enthusiasm. It meant the speedy liberation of F ranee. 

Two weeks after the capture of the St. Mihiel salient, Franco- 
American forces launched another offensive (September 26), which 
had for one of its objectives a wooded plateau, known as the Ar- 
gonne Forest, lying between the Aisne and the Meuse, in the 
Champagne region, noted for its wines. This forest, which is over 
thirty miles long, had been made one of the strongest positions on 
the western front. The whole region was a perfect maze of 
trenches and wire entanglements with innumerable machine-gun 
nests. The Hindenburg Line ran through the forest. The defenses 
were held by the pick of the German troops. For over three weeks 
the Americans fought their way foot by foot through the tangled 
wood. At the end of this time the whole forest was in their hands. 

The capture of the Argonne Forest was the most notable 
achievement of the Americans during the war. The possession of 
this ground gave the Allies control of one of the two main German 
railway lines furnishing communication with Germany. This 
helped to make the German military situation impossible, and to 
force the acceptance by the German staff of the humiliating 
conditions of the armistice of November n. 1 

To the foregoing brief recital of the part played by the United 
States in the war activities of 1918 a word must be added re¬ 
specting the work carried on by the American Red Cross, the 

1 American forces were engaged in less important operations on other sectors of the 
western front. There were also units of the American troops in northern Russia, in 
eastern Siberia, and in Italy. As officially reported February 6, 1920, the revised list of 
American casualties showed a total of 293,067, of which number 215,423 were wounded, 
34,844 killed in action, and 42,800 died from wounds, disease, and accidents. 


§ 950] 


CANADA’S PART IN THE WAR 


701 


Young Men’s Christian Association, the Knights of Columbus, 
the Jewish WYlfare Board, the Salvation Army, and numerous 
other organizations of like spirit and of similar purpose. These 
societies, generously supported by public subscriptions, 1 not only 
rendered services of every kind to our soldiers in the training 
camps, on the battlefield, in the trenches, and in hospitals, but 
also gave relief to the civilian population of the countries where 
there were want and suffering caused by the war. 

950 . Canada’s Part in the War. 2 All the self-governing do¬ 
minions of the British Empire — Canada, Australia, New Zealand, 
and South Africa—made notable records in the World War. 
None, however, played a nobler and more self-sacrificing part 
than the Dominion of Canada. 

Immediately upon the outbreak of the war, Canada, realizing 
the supreme issues involved in the conflict that Germany had 
precipitated, began to make hurried preparations for placing her 
contingents alongside the Imperial British forces on the battle 
lines, By the early spring of 1915 Canadian troops were in the 
trenches on the western front, and at the second battle of Ypres, 
where the Germans treacherously made their first poison gas at¬ 
tack, they held the shaken lines with heroism beyond praise, and 
thereby saved the imperiled Channel ports, but only at the terrible 
cost of eight thousand killed and wounded. 

During the following year (1916) the Canadian troops partici¬ 
pated in all the chief operations on the sector of the western 
front held by the British. They played a specially brilliant part, 
.along with Australians and New Zealanders, in the long, bitterly 
contested first battle of the Somme (July-November) and helped 
to write that " enduring page in Anglo-Saxon history.” 

In the early days of 1917 the Canadian troops achieved added 
fame by their gallant storming, in the course of the operations of 

1 The American Red Cross alone received over $400,000,000 in money and supplies, 
besides uncounted contributions of personal service, " by far the largest voluntary gifts 
of money, of hand and heart, ever contributed for the relief of human suffering.” 

2 The statements of this section are based in large part on a report entitled 
«Canada’s War Effort,” by Sir Robert I.aird Borden, Prime Minister of Canada 
tfSimonds, History of the World War, vol. iv, pp. 396-401). 


702 


THE WORLD WAR 


[§ 951 


the third battle of Ypres, of Vimy Ridge, a commanding height 
on the Belgian front. The capture of this position has been 
pronounced "one of the finest achievements of the whole war.” 
Later in the year, on the same Belgian sector, the Canadians 
wrested from the enemy the strategically important high ground 
of Passchendaele Ridge. 

Throughout the last year of the war the Canadian Corps bore 
a full share in all the operations of the Allies in defense and at¬ 
tack. They aided in checking and holding down the great German 
drives during the early critical months of the year, and then, when 
through the arrival of United States troops in force the initiative 
had passed from the enemy, they participated in the general at¬ 
tack and advance of the ^Allies which resulted in the breaking of 
the Hindenburg Line, the final retreat of the German armies, and 
the liberation of the French and Belgian territories which the 
Germans had so long occupied and devastated. 

Nothing, however, so impressively summarizes the greatness of 
Canada’s effort and of her contribution to the winning of the war, 
or speaks so eloquently of the fortitude and gallantry of the 
Canadian Corps, as the figures of Canadian casualties during the 
four years of the conflict. Out of the more than four hundred 
and eighteen thousand men that Canada sent overseas nearly a 
hundred and fifty-six thousand were wounded and fifty-seven 
thousand lost their lives. And these were the flower of Canada’s 
young manhood. 

951 . The British Navy in the War. The part played by the 
British navy in the World War affords an impressive illustration 
of the importance of sea power in history, for British command 
of the sea was undoubtedly the most vital factor in the great 
struggle. Without that command the war could not have been 
won by the Allies. 

At the outbreak of the war the British grand fleet was hurried 
to its chief observation station in northern Scotland. The German 
fleet was thus barred from the Atlantic and, by what might be 
called a long-distance blockade, was virtually shut up in its home 
ports. The few German cruisers at large were in a few months 


§ 952] 


THE BRITISH NAVY IN THE WAR 


703 


run down or driven to shelter. 1 In this work the British navy 
was aided by the French and Japanese fleets. 

At the same time that the seas were freed from German raiders 
they were cleared of German merchant ships. Immediately upon 
the opening of hostilities these hurriedly sought refuge in home 
ports or in the harbors of neutral countries, where they remained 
idle during the war. This closing of the seas to German ships 
and the keeping of them open to the ships of the Allies and of 
neutrals gave the powers fighting Germany a decisive advantage 
in the great struggle. “ It made the world the arsenal and granary 
of the Allies.” 

With the seas once cleared of enemy ships, the services of 
the British navy, rendered throughout the dragging years of the 
war with traditional British heroism and tenacity, consisted in the 
patrol of the North Sea, in an unremitting watch upon the German 
grand fleet, in the maintenance of the blockade of the German 
ports, in clearing the seas of the mines laid by enemy submarines, 
and in the transport of millions of soldiers from all parts of the 
world to the battle areas in Europe, Asia, and Africa. In render¬ 
ing these and other like services the British navy during the first 
two years of the war—that is, before the British armies had 
become a real factor on the battle lines—made to the cause of 
the Allies a contribution without which the war would inevitably 
have been won by Germany. 2 

952 . German Submarine Warfare and its Results. There 
is a striking parallel between the policy of ruthless submarine 
warfare adopted by the Germans in the World War and Napoleon’s 
arrogant Continental Blockade, which it will be worth our while 
to note here, particularly because of its relation to the subject 
of sea power. 

1 Two German cruisers, the Goebcn and the Breslau , in the Mediterranean, unfor¬ 
tunately escaped into the Dardanelles and became an important factor in drawing 
Turkey into the war on the side of the Central Powers. At the Falkland Islands, in the 
South Atlantic, the only German squadron on the seas was destroyed by the British, 
December 7, 1914. 

2 The single great battle fought during the war between considerable portions of the 
British and German grand fleets was the encounter off Jutland, May 31, 1916, which has 
already been noted (p. 685, n. 3). 


704 


THE WORLD WAR 


[§ 952 


It will be recalled how Napoleon, unable to reach his chief 
enemy, England, intrenched behind her navy-guarded island home, 
adopted the policy of a blockade of the Continent against British 
commerce, and how this policy, leading him on from one aggression 
to another and finally to the fatal campaigns against Spain and 
Russia, resulted at last in his undoing (sect. 797). Now, in like 
manner, Germany, unable to reach directly her formidable enemy 
England, adopted her illegal submarine policy, which, rousing 
against her the whole world and ultimately drawing the United 
States into the war on the side of the Allies, brought about her 
downfall and ruin. 1 2 

It was in the third year of the war, it will be recalled, that 
Germany, now equipped with a large number of submarines, 
casting aside all moral considerations, entered upon unrestricted 
submarine operations. During February .and March (1917) the 
German U-boats sank over eight hundred vessels, both allied and 
neutral. A continuance of this rate of sinkings would have forced 
Great Britain to give up the struggle by September, leaving 
German power dominant in the world.” 

The terrible menace was met and overcome in various ways. 
Among the means employed were the convoy system—that is, 
the sailing of merchant vessels in groups guarded by warships, a 
system impossible of effective adoption before the United States en¬ 
tered the war because of the lack of anti-submarine craft; the use 
of depth bombs—bombs so constructed as to explode only after 
reaching a certain depth in the water; and the employment of 
observation airplanes, those ''eyes of the army,” which, now used 
as eyes for the navy, revealed the lurking submarines even when 
lying far beneath the surface of the ocean. By November of 1917 
the crisis was past. The sinkings fell from nearly a million tons 
in April of that year to less than half that number in September. 

1 See Simonds, History of the World War, vol. ii, pp. 37-40. 

2 The sinkings for each year of the war were as follows: 

*9 T 4 .... 314,694 tons 1917 .... 6,187,700 tons 

1915 .... 1,298,748 tons 1918 .... 2,675,520 tons 

1916 .... 2,291,437 tons 


§ 953] 


THE PEACE CONVENTION 


705 



The peril from the submarine activities was finally so reduced 
as to become almost negligible by the laying of a mine barrage 
from Scotland to Norway, which effectually closed the North Sea 
and prevented the enemy submarines from passing out into the 
Atlantic. 1 The laying of this obstruction was one of the greatest 
engineering feats of the war. 

It was largely an achievement 
of the American navy, aided by 
the British fleet. The barrage 
consisted of several lines of 
mines stretching from coast to 
coast, a distance of two hundred 
and thirty miles. It required 
the laying of over seventy thou¬ 
sand mines, of which about four 
fifths were laid by United States 
ships. The obstruction became 
effective in the early summer of 
1918, there being evidence that 
more than a score of the Ger¬ 
man U-boats were destroyed in 
attempting to pass the barrier. 

The construction of this bar¬ 
rage, destroying as it did the 
last hope of the Germans of 
winning the war with their submarines, helped materially in 
bringing the terrible struggle to an end. 

953 . The Peace Convention at Paris and the Treaty of Ver¬ 
sailles. Immediately upon the conclusion of the Armistice 
(sect. 948) the German government began the withdrawal of its 
armies from the ground on which they still stood in France and 
Belgium. 2 At the same time arrangements were being made for 


© Harris & Ewing 

Fig. 152. Premier Clemenceau 
of France. (From a photograph) 


1 Net barriers closed the English Channel at its narrowest point, at Dover. 

2 The demobilization of the armies of the Allies was now begun. By September 30, 
1919, the great United States army in Europe as well as the forces in the home camps 
(in all about 4,000,000 men) had been returned to civil life, leaving overseas only a few 
thousand troops. 





THE WORLD WAR 


[§953 


706 



the meeting of the delegates of the allied and associated powers 
for framing a general treaty of peace. The convention opened at 
Paris, January 18, 1919. Twenty-sev^n nations were represented. 
President Wilson was the head of the American delegation. 
Premier Clemenceau of France was president of the Convention. 

The work of the congress 
embraced a bewildering variety 
of matters, among which were 
included (1) the drawing of 
the articles of definitive peace 
treaties; (2) the settlement 
of the boundaries of Germany 
and of the new states created 
by the disintegration of the 
Austro-Hungarian Monarchy 
and the Russian and Turkish 
empires; and (3) the framing 
of a covenant for a League 
of Nations. The work was 
divided among a great num¬ 
ber of committees or com¬ 
missions, who were aided in 
their task by more than a 

riarris« twing . . 

Fig. 153. President Woodrow thousand historical, ethnolog- 

Wilson. (From a photograph) ical, geographical, and diplo¬ 
matic experts. 

The work of framing the Covenant of the League of Nations was 
first completed. The tentative draft of the epoch-making docu¬ 
ment was published February 14, 1919, and immediately became 
the subject of a world-wide discussion. The articles of the Cove¬ 
nant were interwoven with and made a part of the treaty with 
Germany, and likewise embodied in each of the separate treaties 
made with her allies. 

On June 28, 1919, in the famous Hall of Mirrors in the Trianon 
Palace at Versailles—the very hall in which King William I was 
proclaimed German Emperor in 1871 — the treaty with Germany 





0 Longitude 10 East 


30 Greenwich 40 


West 


Longitude 


Hammi 


EUROPE 


AFTER THE WORLD WAR 


SCALE OF MILES 


I 

SINGFORS 


r-'^Reval 

cCFiTHOMA^ 


Manchfes 


*■* Vilna 


ESQ LIS. 


IRAGUE 


^ov 

ittENNA 




f>> 

» 1 «tntbe. S \> 

Balkan fc 4&M,X s j 
/ SOFIA-^^Sa^;J 




Naples\^|, 

WM'esiitjrn® 


COMPARATIVE AREA 


bale*’ 


400 MILES 


PENNSYLVANIA 
45,000 SQ. MILES 


THIS RECTANGLE CONTAINS 
100,000 SQ. MILES 


Longitude 


Greenwich 40 


Settled boundaries Unsettled boundaries 

Boundary of the Zone of the Straits 


Sovereignty to be determined 
by popular vote 


Areas under control of the 
League of Nations 


Japan 









































































§ 953] 


THE PEACE CONFERENCE 


707 


was signed by the representatives of the allied and associated 
powers on the one side and the delegates of Germany on the other. 

The important territorial readjustments that directly concerned 
Germany were as follows: Alsace-Lorraine was restored to France 
to redress the wrong done by Germany in 1871. The Saar basin, 
a rich German coal and iron region, was temporarily internation¬ 
alized and the mines of the district were ceded in full ownership 
to France as compensation for 
the wanton destruction of French 
mines in the territories ocr >pied 
by the German armies. 

To undo the wrong done to 
Denmark by Prussia in 1864, 
such parts of Schleswig were to 
be reunited to Denmark as the 
inhabitants of these parts by 
free and secret vote should 
determine. 

On the East, Germany ceded 
Posen, West Prussia on the left 
bank of the Vistula, and parts 
of Silesia to the new Poland. 

These cessions were mainly resti¬ 
tutions of lands acquired by 
Prussia through the greatest in¬ 
ternational crime in the records 
of modern Europe prior to the violation of the neutrality of Bel¬ 
gium by the Germans in 1914. 1 Danzig, the Baltic port of old 
Poland, was made a free city and placed under the protection of 
the League of Nations. 

Germany was further required by the terms of the treaty 
to recognize the full sovereignty of restored Belgium and the 
complete independence of German Austria (within the frontiers 
to be fixed later) and of the new states of Czechoslovakia and 
Poland, and to renounce all rights and privileges in her African 

1 See sects. 710, 718. 



© Harris & Ewing 

Fig. 154. Premier David Lloyd 
George of Great Britain. 
(From a photograph) 








THE WORLD WAR 



[§953 


colonies and other possessions outside of Europe in favor of the 
collective or individual allied and associated powers. 1 

The provisions of the treaty in regard to the German army, 
navy, and armament factories were of such a nature as to render 
Germany incapable of launching another war of aggression. They 
required that the army be reduced to one hundred thousand men; 
that all factories for the manufacture of war munitions (save a 
few specifically excepted) should be closed; that the manufacture 
of poisonous gases should cease; that all military schools should 
be abolished ; that no armed forces be maintained in a prescribed 
zone east of the Rhine; that all fortifications and military estab¬ 
lishments on the island of Helgoland, the "German Gibraltar,” 
be destroyed "under the supervision of the Allies by German labor 
and at Germany’s expense.” 

In respect to responsibility for the war a special article of the 
treaty arraigned the Kaiser in these words: "The allied and asso¬ 
ciated powers publicly arraign William II of Hohenzollern, for¬ 
merly German Emperor, for a supreme offense against international 
morality and the sanctity of treaties.” His surrender was to be 
requested of the Netherlands for trial before an international 
tribunal. All other persons who had violated the laws of war 
were to be given up by Germany for trial and punishment. 2 

By additional articles of the treaty Germany accepted the 
responsibility of herself and her allies for the war and bound her¬ 
self to restore the cars, industrial machinery, works of art, and 
other articles she had carried away from the countries she had 
overrun, and to pay such sum in reparation for damages inflicted 
as a commission might decide to be just and within her power. 

Concluding sections of the treaty provided that it should come 
into force as soon as ratified by Germany on the one hand and by 
three of the principal allied and associated powers on the other. 

1 Germany renounced in favor of Japan all rights, titles, and privileges that she had 
acquiied in the province of Shantung by treaty or through "other arrangements” 
with China. 

B >’ note dated January 15, 1920, the Supreme Council of the Peace Conference de¬ 
manded of the Netherlands government the extradition of the former Emperor William. 
The demand was refused. 



Fig. 155. The Peace Congress in the Hall of Mirrors, Versailles, June 28, 1919 

(Drawing by George Scott; from L'Illustration) 


















§953] 


THE PEACE CONFERENCE 


709 


By January 10, 1920, these requirements had been met, and on 
that date the treaty, through exchange of ratifications between 
Germany on the one part and France, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, 
Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Guatemala, Peru, Poland, Siam, Czecho¬ 
slovakia, and Uruguay on the other part, became effective between 
the powers that had ratified it. I his left the United States the only 
great power still nominally at war with Germany, the Senate of the 
United States having up to this time refused to ratify the treaty. 1 

Two days later President Wilson in compliance with a provision 
of the Covenant of the League of Nations issued a call for the 
first meeting of the Council of the League in Paris on January 16, 
1920. In transmitting this summons to the governments con¬ 
cerned, President Wilson suggested the deep significance of the 
meeting in these words: " It will mark the beginning of a new 
era in international cooperation and the first great step toward 
the ideal concert of nations.” On the day named in the call the 
Council met in Paris, and the League of Nations thus came into 


l About two months after the signing of the treaty with Germany there was signed 
at St Germain (September 10, 1919) a treaty, similar to it in essentials, between the 
Allied powers and Austria, which was now merely a pitiful fragment, with a population 
of about 7 000 000, of the old Austria-Hungary. By the terms of this treaty Austria was 
recuired to cede to Italy the Trentino and Trieste, and acknowledge the independence 
and sovereignty of the new states-Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Jugoslavia-which 

had been formed in whole or in part out of provinces of the disrupted Austro-Hungana 
had been forme ass ume the title of Republic of Austria, and was 

f ^unir^A GeLany without the consent of the Council of the League of 

Nations The treaty between the Allies and Bulgaria was signed on November 27, 19* 9 - 

Bulgaria was stripped of almost all her recent —.and 

largT tract's of^on-HungaSn'"lands’to Rumania, Poland, and Czechoslovakia Hungary 

was left a^hninken state^with a population t^ms^ere^drasfo 

The £e rl EM no part of its pre-war territories being left 

S ° j Turkish sovereignty except Constantinople with a small adjoining district an 
under Turkish sovereig y 1 n d Bospho rus were internationalized; 

western Asia Minor (Anatolia). The Da ™ a "'"“ A ^ menia (exact frontiers to be 

Smyrna with adjacent ternto^waji giv^^ ^ indep ; ndent republic; Syria. Palestine 
fixed by “•nniission^ ^ homeland for the Jews), and Mesopotamia were 

(promised to the Z,on st mandator i e s were to be named in accordance with 

made independent states. Nations ; the freedom and independ- 

th e ; ’and Turkey acknowledged 

Gre'at Bri^nt"orate over Egypt and agreed to her annexation of Cyprus, which 
had been proclaimed in 19x4. 


710 


THE WORLD WAR 


[§954 


real and active being. Later in the year (November 15) the first 
meeting of the Assembly of the League was held in Geneva, with 
the representatives of forty-two nations in attendance. 

954 . Some Assured Results of the World War. Not until 
sufficient time has elapsed to prove the stability of the work of 
the Paris Peace Conference will it be possible to make anything 
like a complete appraisal of the results of the World W ar. How¬ 
ever, there are already certain assured outcomes of the fateful 
struggle of which we should here make note because of their rela¬ 
tion to the democratic, nationalistic, and world-federative move¬ 
ments,— those great trends in universal history which it has been 
a chief purpose of ours to portray in the foregoing pages. 

First, the war has imparted a fresh impulse to the democratic 
movement. This it has done by discrediting irretrievably auto¬ 
cratic, militaristic government and demonstrating the strength and 
superiority of government based on individual freedom and popular 
sovereignty. It has brought definitely to an end government by 
divine-right kings. It has called into existence half a score new 
republics. It has "made the world safe for democracy.” 

Second, the war has greatly promoted the nationalistic move¬ 
ment. Precipitated by a great imperial power whose aim was 
world dominion, this challenge to the spirit of nationality has 
resulted in the disruption, partial or complete, of four great op¬ 
pressive empires — Hohenzollern, Hapsburg, Romanoff, and Otto¬ 
man—and has brought about the regrouping of their liberated 
peoples in accordance with the aspirations of race and the spirit 
of nationalism. If there had been no other result than the creation 
of these nation-states,— Finland, Esthonia, Latvia, Lithuania, 
Poland, Czechoslovakia, Jugoslavia, Armenia, the Arab kingdom 
of the Hejaz, and the rest,— that alone would go far to com¬ 
pensate humanity for the tragic sacrifices of the titanic war. 1 

1 At the same time that these new national states came into being, the unification of 
the Italian and of the Rumanian people was substantially completed and that of the 
Greek race greatly advanced. Furthermore, Germany, Austria, and Hungary, with 
the peoples or fragments of peoples they had been holding in political servitude 
liberated, became national republics. All this marks a great triumph for the principle 
of nationality. 


§ 954 ] 


SOME RESULTS OF THE WAR 


711 

Third, the war has given a great impulse to the historic trend 
toward the definite organization of the world. This is doubtless 
historically the most significant outcome of the great struggle, for 
the formation of the League of Nations, although the federation 
as yet embraces only a part of the sovereign and independent 
nations of the world, carries the pledge and promise of the final 
consummation, in the fullness of time, of that age-long movement 
toward world union which, in the grouping of warring clans and 
tribes into city-states and petty kingdoms, began in the obscurity 
of prehistoric times. 

References. On the background and causes of the war: The Kaiser vs. Bis¬ 
marck (the third volume of Bismarck’s Reminiscences). Bernhardi, Friedrich 
von, Germany and the Next War. Smith, T. F. A., The Soul of Germany. 
Usher, R. G., Pan-Germanism. Cheradame, A., The Pan-German Plot 
Unmasked. Gerard, J. W., My dour Years in Germany. Woods, H. C., 
The Cradle of the War. J astro w, M., The War and the Bagdad Railway. 
Seymour, C., The Diplomatic Background of the War. Stowell, E. C., The 
Diplomacy of the War of 1914. Schurman, J. G., The Balkan Wars. Gibbons, 
H. A., The New Map of Europe. Davis, S. D. (with collaborators), The Roots 
of the War. Beck, J. M., The Evidence in the Case. Lichnowsky, Prince 
Karl, The Guilt of Germany. Grelling, R., I Accuse I (published anony¬ 
mously during the war). The text of the official documents (the ” British 
White Paper,” the " German White Book,” the " French Yellow Book,” etc.) 
of the belligerent governments bearing on the outbreak of the war will be found 
in convenient form in the pamphlets issued by The American Association for 
International Conciliation, 407 West 117th St., New \ ork City. 

On the years of the war and the Peace Conference: Whitlock, B., 
Belgium under German Occupation , 2 vols. Morgenthau, H., Ambassador 
Morgenthau's Stoiy. Bassett, J. S., Our War with Germany. McMaster, J. B., 
The United States in the World War. Usher, R. G., The Stoiy of the Great 
War. SlMONDS, F. H., History of the World War, 5 vols. The A T ew York Times 
Current History ; The European War, 20 vols. Hayes, C. J. H ., A Brief History 
of the Great War. Turner, E. R., Europe, 1789-1920, part ii, chaps, xi-xiii. 
Haskins, C. H., and Lord, R. H., Some Problems of the Peace Conference. 
Lansing, R., The Peace Negotiations: A Personal Narrative. Tardieu, A., 
The Truth about the Treaty. House, E. M., and Seymour, C. (editors), What 
Really Happened at Paris: the Stoiy of the Peace Conference, 1918-1919, by 
American Delegates. Temperley, H. W. V. (editor), A History of the Peace 
Conference of Paris, 5 vols. (three volumes published up to the date of printing 
this). Ross, E. A.,* The Russian Bolshevik Revolution. 


CHAPTER LXXVIII 

THE POST-WAR PERIOD 

955 . Three Important Post-War Movements. In an earlier 
chapter, as we began the history of the period following the up¬ 
heaval of the French Revolution, we sought to reduce to some kind 
of intelligible order the multitude of events claiming our attention 
by noting first what were the character-giving forces or tendencies 
of the age (sect. 8n). If now, as we enter upon the new age 
opened by the World War, we make note of what were the chief 
movements of this post-war period, we shall have a helpful formula 
which will show the relation and unity and reveal the significance 
of many of the most important events of the epoch. 

Three of the great drifts in the current of universal history, 
namely, the Democratic, the Nationalist, and the World-Federa¬ 
tion movement, to which were imparted fresh energy by the cir¬ 
cumstances and the issue of the World War, we mentioned in the 
closing section of the preceding chapter (sect. 954). All of these 
age-movements became the heritage of the post-war era. To each 
we shall devote a separate section. 

956 . The Democratic Movement. In summarizing the well- 
assured results of the World War we said that it had discredited 
autocratic monarchy and, in the Wilsonian phrase, "made the 
world safe for democracy.” Indeed, with the downfall of the 
Hohenzollerns, the Hapsburgs, and the Romanoffs, all autocrati¬ 
cally inclined dynasties, all enemies of democracy, there was left 
in the world no other form of government as a serious competitor 
of government by the people. The day of opportunity for democ¬ 
racy had come. 

I he development of political events since the, war has greatly 
confirmed this optimistic view of the real significance, in the domain 

of government, of the triumph of the western democracies over 

712 


§ 957] 


THE NATIONALIST MOVEMENT 


713 


the central empires. In most of the states that have arisen on the 
ruins of the autocratic empires disrupted by the war (Soviet Russia 
is a notable exception) there have been established and main¬ 
tained governments democratic in character as well as in form. 
The new republics, particularly Finland, Czechoslovakia, and 
Poland, may with great assurance be regarded as representing 
permanent gains for democracy. Even the new Turkish state, of 
which we shall speak a little further on, reveals in its constitution 
the potent influence of the democratic spirit that is moving over 
the modern world. The failure of Russia to establish a truly popu¬ 
lar regime forms the marked exception to the generally democratic 
trend in the new or reorganized states. Regarding the tragic 
course of events in that unhappy land and the establishment there 
of the devastating tyranny of the Bolsheviks we shall speak later. 

It is noteworthy that in this world drift toward democracy in 
government the cause of the emancipation of women from many 
age-old restrictions has been greatly advanced, and in many of the 
new states, as for instance in the republics of Finland, Lithuania, 
Czechoslovakia, and Poland, they have been made equal with men 
in all political rights and privileges. This admission of women to 
participation in the government under which they live would seem 
to be a logical outcome of the principles, and a significant triumph 
of the spirit, of democracy. 

957 . The Nationalist Movement. Perhaps there was never a 
slogan coined more dynamic and history-making than the phrase 
"self-determination of peoples” uttered by President Wilson just 
as the United States was about to enter the World War. It awak¬ 
ened new hopes and gave a fresh impulse to the nationalist move¬ 
ment wherever in the world there were subjected, oppressed, or 
exploited peoples—and it must be borne in mind that when Presi¬ 
dent Wilson threw out this challenge to imperialism more than half 
of the population of the world was either in actual or threatened 
subjection to alien rule. 

This watchword of emancipation contributed greatly to the 
break-up of the enemy empires and to the remaking in large part 
of the map of central Europe on the basis of the principle of 


7i4 


THE POST-WAR PERIOD 


[§ 957 


nationality. 1 During the brief period that has passed since the 
Peace Conference at Paris this roused spirit of nationalism has been 
a determining factor in the development of events. We note first 
the influence of this awakened national sentiment on the remaking 
of the map of Western Asia. 

The treaty of peace with Turkey, 2 as we have seen, was not 
ratified by any of the parties to it. It became virtually a dead 
letter and the condition of warfare in the Near East continued. 
The Greeks, to whom the Allies had allotted Smyrna, resolved on 
the liberation of the Greek Christian population of Asia Minor and 
the recovery of ancient Greek lands; they launched an ill-advised 
campaign against the new Turkish Nationalist Government which, 
headed by Mustapha Kemal Pasha, had established itself at An¬ 
gora in the interior of Asia Minor. In this drive the Greeks in¬ 
vaded what was genuinely Turkish territory, the homeland of the 
Turks. The natural result of this invasion was the fanning of the 
national spirit of the Turks into a furious flame. The Greek army 
was defeated and driven out of Asia Minor. 3 

The outstanding result of the military success of the Turks was 
the firm establishment of the revolutionary Turkish government 
and the extension of its authority not only over the whole of 
Asia Minor but eventually also over Constantinople and Eastern 
Thrace. 4 

1 See sect. 954 and note. 

2 Treaty of Sevres, signed August 10, 1920. See above, p. 709, note. 

3 The Greek adventure was foredoomed to failure through the mutual jealousy and 
conflicting imperial and commercial interests particularly of Great Britain and France. 
The British government encouraged the Greeks, while the French government encour¬ 
aged the Turks and supplied them with munitions. The reentry of the Turks into 
Smyrna was followed by a conflagration of undetermined origin which destroyed a great 
part of the city amid scenes of pillage and massacre which seemed to repeat the tragic 
fate, at the hands of the "barbarian ” Persians, of the brilliant Greek city of Miletus on 
this same coast twenty-five hundred years before. 

4 1 his return of the Turks to Europe was perforce acquiesced in by the Allies in 
conference with the representatives of the Nationalist Turkish Government in what is 
known as the Near East Conference (opened at Lausanne, Switzerland, November 20, 
1922, adjourned February 4, 1923). At this same conference it was agreed that the 
Straits (the Dardanelles and Bosphorus) should be demilitarized and that merchant 
ships (also warships with certain restrictions) should have free passage through the 
Straits in peace and in war. I he convention broke up without definite results having 
been reached regarding the financial, economic, and judicial problems before the body. 


§ 957 ] 


THE NATIONALIST MOVEMENT 


715 


This new Turkey, like the new Germany and the new Austria, 
is a national republic . 1 Thus as a result of the World War and its 
aftermath, the Graeco-Turkish War, the old Ottoman Empire has 
been divided into two parts, one part comprising the essentially 
Turkish territories 2 and the other embracing the Arabic-speaking 
lands,—Syria, Palestine, Transjordania, and the Kingdom of the 
Hejaz." Thus here in Western Asia, as in Europe, the roused na¬ 
tional spirit, showing itself more potent than the religious senti¬ 
ment, has remade the map virtually on the basis of nationality. 
Following the establishment of the new Turkish state, at certain 
ceremonies attending the induction into office of a new caliph "for 
the first time in history the prayers were said in Turkish instead of 
Arabic. This was to emphasize the fact of Turkish national unity, 
and to symbolize that the Arabs no longer formed part of the 
Turkish stated ’ 4 


1 See afcove, p. 710, note. 

2 The predominantly Turkish character of the population of this new Turkish state 
results from the wholesale expulsion or massacre of the Christian non-Turkish elements 
of the population. It is estimated that during the World War and the post-war years up 
to 1923 at least 2,000,000 Armenians and over 1,000,000 Greek Christians were killed, 
deported, or driven by terror from the country. These successive massacres and the 
flight of Christians have automatically settled the problem of Christian minorities in the 
new republic. Ismet Pasha, head of the Turkish delegation at the Lausanne Confer¬ 
ence, calmly stated that "Turkey no longer contains any minority that is capable of 
forming an independent state.” This is undeniably true. There can be no further 
thought of the establishment of an Armenian state on Turkish territory. The only home¬ 
land of this martyrized people is the little Soviet Republic of Armenia now constituted 
on lands in Transcaucasia, once in part belonging to the Russian Empire. The 
Armenians still left in Turkey, forming as they now do a negligible minority, will be 
permitted to remain should they desire to do so. As to the Greek Christians still 
remaining in Turkey, except those living in Constantinople, it was arranged at the 
Lausanne Conference that there should be an exchange of these with the Moslems 
now in Greece. This transfer of minority populations involves about 500,000 Greek 
Christians and an equal number of Moslems. 

3 See above, p. 709, note. These Arab states are the inheritors of a rich tradition 
which justifies the hope that with self-determination and in freedom this branch of the 
highly endowed Semitic peoples will not fail to make valuable contributions to the 
civilization of the future. 

4 An accompaniment of the triumph of the Turkish Nationalists was the separation 
of Church (Mosque) and State in Turkey. The reigning sultan-caliph, Mohammed VI, 
because he had been too subservient to the Allies, was deposed by the Grand National 
Assembly at Angora, and a prince of the Osman royal family was elected as caliph of 
Islam. As such he exercises merely spiritual authority, but this runs throughout the 
Moslem world. His position is like that of the Roman Catholic Pope since his temporal 


716 


THE POST-WAR PERIOD 


[§957 


Not less history-making has been the influence of the awakened 
spirit of nationalism in the settlement of Far East problems. We 
have seen how gravely, about the close of the last century, the 
sovereignty and independence of China were impaired and her 
national right of self-determination disregarded by the great Euro¬ 
pean powers. We also saw how these encroachments roused a 
national consciousness that found expression in the Boxer Uprising 
(sect. 911). Continued intrusion upon Chinese sovereignty has 
strengthened this awakened sentiment of nationality so that "to¬ 
day, despite serious divisions, a strong national consciousness is in 
existence and aggressive patriotism is actuating the leaders of 
China and the rising generation.” 1 

The greatest invasion of Chinese sovereignty concerned the 
province of Shantung, the Holy Land of the Chinese. As a result 
of the World War this province had come under the control of 
Japan, and her occupation of it was confirmed by an article of the 
Treaty of Versailles. 2 The Chinese government bitterly resented 
this invasion of its sovereignty. The peace of the Far East was 
seriously threatened. Finally, toward the close of the year 1922, 
as one of the outcomes of an international conference at Washing¬ 
ton on the limitation of naval armaments, of which we shall speak 
a little further on, the Japanese government entered into a treaty 
with China in accordance with the terms of which it withdrew its 
military forces from the disputed province and restored the terri¬ 
tory to China. This action of Japan marks one of the most notable 
and significant triumphs of the cause of nationalism of the present 
age. It inaugurates a new policy on the part of the great European 
powers which leaves China ' mistress in her own home,”—leaves 
her free to develop on native lines and to realize her awakened 
national aspirations. 3 

power was taken away in 1871 (sect. 858). As sovereignty in the new Nationalist Turkish 
state is invested in the Grand National Assembly, the Ottoman sultanate is abolished. 

1 Dr. Jacob Gould Schurman, United States envoy to China. 

2 See above, p. 708, note 1. 

At the same time that Japan agreed to restore Shantung to China the representatives 
of the Luropean powers holding leases of territory and concessions obtained by coercion 
from China entered into treaties which obligated them "to respect the sovereignty, the 
independence, and the territorial and administrative integrity of China.” 


§ 957] 


THE NATIONALIST MOVEMENT 


717 


T-he same brief post-war period which has seen completed the 
remaking of the map of Western Asia substantially on national 
lines, and the triumph in the Far East of this principle of nationality 
as it concerns the greatest, in point of numbers, of modern nations, 
has also recorded further triumph of nationalism in the crea¬ 
tion, out of parts of the British Empire, of two national states, 
namely, the Free State of Ireland and the independent Kingdom 
of Egypt. 

We have already noticed how the demand of the Irish for self- 
determination finally led, two years after the Armistice, to the 
establishment of an Irish Free State embracing the greater part of 
Ireland. 1 The status of the new state as regards its relations to 
Great Britain is practically the same as that of the Dominion of 
Canada. 

On December 17, 1922, the last British soldier was withdrawn 
from Ireland, and the British occupation of the island, which had 
lasted seven centuries, came to an end; the Irish Free State began 
its career as a self-governed community of the great British Com¬ 
monwealth of Nations. 

The establishment of the Irish Free State is an event of world 
import. This rights, in so far as is practically possible, not only an 
ancient wrong but one which through the action of Irish sym¬ 
pathizers in the United States constantly disturbed the friendly 
relations of England and America, thus preventing the cordial 
cooperation of the two great Anglo-Saxon nations in the interests 
of international peace and the advancement of human welfare. 

In Egypt the national spirit was roused by the circumstances of 
the World War and the Wilsonian doctrine of the right of peoples 
to self-determination. For more than two thousand years Egypt, 
subjected to foreign domination, had known only the rule of aliens. 
The British control and protectorate had conferred great benefits 
upon the country, but notwithstanding this the Nationalist move¬ 
ment, the aim of which was complete independence of Great 
Britain, became so threatening that the British government was 
finally constrained to yield to the demands of the Nationalists. 


1 See above, p. 593 and note. 


7 i8 


THE POST-WAR PERIOD 


[§958 


The protectorate was ended, and Egypt, as an independent king¬ 
dom, took its place in the family of nations. 1 2 

At the same time that the national aspirations of Ireland and 
Egypt were thus compelling a recognition of their right to self- 
determination India was likewise feeling the urge of the Nationalist 
movement. The demand of the Nationalist party here was that to 
the peoples of India should be accorded also the sacred right of 
self-determination, the right to rule themselves and to follow their 
own way of life. 

The leader of this Nationalist movement was Mahatma - Gandhi. 
The movement under his leadership was a dual one. It was not 
only a revolt against British rule but also a revolt against Western 
civilization, which was to be rejected as an evil thing. India was 
to revert to her ancient way of life, to resume her ancestral 
manners, customs, and culture. 3 

The means adopted to effect the revolution was noncodperation 
and passive resistance. No native was to hold office or render any 
public service whatsoever. Though Gandhi forbade his followers 
to use force, they often did resort to violence. The Indian govern¬ 
ment was finally compelled to adopt stern measures of repression. 
Gandhi was arrested and sentenced to prison. This has given a 
check to the movement but has by no means put an end to the 
activities of the Nationalists. India is seething with unrest and 
with unsatisfied national aspirations. 

958 . The League of Nations. We have noted how the move¬ 
ment for a world-wide organization of nations in the interests of 
international peace, which had gained great momentum before the 
World War, 4 was given a fresh impulse by that devastating strug¬ 
gle, since it was now realized that, if civilization was to endure, 
war between the great nations armed with the terribly destructive 
agencies of modern science must cease. During the few years that 

1 By agreement between Great Britain and the Egyptian government British inter¬ 
ests, particularly Britain’s communication with India, were secured. 

2 Mahatma is a title meaning " great-souled.” 

3 Thus industry was to be brought back from the factory to the home, and homemade 
cloth was to displace the factory-made cloth of Manchester. 

4 See Chapter LXXVI. 


§ 958] 


THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 


719 


have passed since the end of the war this movement has made 
hopeful progress, notwithstanding the fact that the influence and 
the prestige of the League of Nations, created by the Covenant 
which was a part of the Treaty of Versailles, have been greatly les¬ 
sened through the absence of representatives of the United States 
from its Council and Assembly. Nevertheless the League has some 
notable achievements to its credit, and has become an important 
factor in the life of the world. At the meeting of the Assembly 
of the League in 1922 there were present the delegates of fifty-two 
nations. "In human history,’ 7 as has been truly said, "there exists 
no parallel to this assemblage of white, black, brown, and yellow 
men of almost every religion and tongue, all incited by a common 
desire,—to reduce the world’s wars and promote the welfare of 
mankind.” 

One of the most important accomplishments of the League has 
been the organization, in accordance with Article XIV of the 
Covenant, of a Permanent Court of International Justice. The 
Court consists of fifteen members, and now stands alongside the 
International Court of Arbitration created by the First Hague 
Conference (sect. 917) as an impartial tribunal open to all the 
nations as suitors. 1 

Several serious international disputes which might have resulted 
in a resort to force by the governments involved have been amica¬ 
bly settled by the League. Among its many other activities, such 
as the administration by commissioners of the Saar valley and the 
free city of Danzig, the most important is the supervision of the 
mandatories that have taken mandates for the German colonies in 
Africa and the liberated territories of the old Ottoman Empire. 2 

9 

1 Just a few days before the dissolution of Congress on March 4, 1923, President 
Harding sent to the Senate a message in which he urged that body to authorize Ameri¬ 
can membership, with certain reservations, in the Permanent Court of International 
Justice. The Senate adjourned without granting the requested authorization. 

2 Article XXII of the Covenant of the League of Nations runs as follows: " To those 
colonies and territories which as a consequence of the late war have ceased to be under 
the sovereignty of the States which formerly governed them and which are inhabited by 
peoples not yet able to stand by themselves under the strenuous conditions of the modern 
world, there should be applied the principle that the well-being and development of such 
peoples form a sacred trust of civilization and that securities for the performance of this 
trust should be embodied in this Covenant. The best method of giving practical effect 


720 


THE POST-WAR PERIOD 


[§ 959 


This system of mandates for backward countries, if through the 
supervision of the League it becomes a reality as it promises to do, 
will put an end to the old imperialistic system of colonies and de¬ 
pendencies ruled and exploited for the benefit of the governing 
state, and will mark the beginning of a new era in the history of 
the relation of the advanced nations to the backward peoples of 
the world. 

959 . Russian Bolshevism. Besides the important trends in 
universal history which we have traced in the preceding section, 
there have been other movements which have contributed to make 
the post-war years under review outstanding years in history. 
The most arresting of these movements is the Russian Bolshevik 
revolution. This has been pronounced the most startling phe¬ 
nomenon of present-day history. 

Our last view of Russia saw that country in the hands of the 
Bolsheviki, radical communists. 1 A chief aim of these revolution¬ 
aries was the utter destruction of the existing capitalistic industrial 
system of the world and the establishment of thoroughgoing com¬ 
munism under a "dictatorship of the proletariat/’ which means the 
rule of the propertyless class of workmen. 

The slogan of these revolutionaries was "Let 'mine’ and 'thine’ 
disappear; long live the communistic 'our.’” All the land, build¬ 
ings, and factories were nationalized. Poor families were billeted 
in the homes of the rich. Work by everyone was made com¬ 
pulsory. He who did not work should not eat. The armies of 
soldiers were turned into armies of workmen. The peasants, who 
constitute 90 per cent of the population of Russia, were required 
to surrender to the government all the produce of their fields over 
and above what they needed for their own use. They were thus 
to provide food for the workmen of the cities, who in the state- 
owned factories were to manufacture the articles needed by the 


to this principle is that the tutelage of such peoples should be entrusted to advanced 
nations who by reason of their resources, their experience or their geographical position, 
can best undertake this responsibility, and who are willing to accept it, and that this 
tutelage should be exercised by them as Mandatories on behalf of the League. In every 
case of mandate, the Mandatory shall render to the Council an annual report in reference to 
the territory committed to its charge.” 1 See above, pp. 688, 693 and note. 


§ 960] 


ITALIAN FASCISM 


721 


peasants. This regime of communism was established by a system 
of terrorism like that of the French Revolutionists. 

By the spring of 1920 the success of the Bolshevik revolution 
was seemingly complete. But at this moment of apparent triumph 
the weakness of the communistic system became manifest. Peas¬ 
ants ceased to raise more grain than just enough for their own 
needs. The output of the factories fell to a mere fraction of the 
normal production under the discarded capitalistic system. The 
result was a complete breakdown of the communistic regime. In¬ 
dustry, trade, and transportation came to a virtual standstill. 
The population of Petrograd sank from over two millions to a little 
over a half million. Drought and failure of crops caused terrible 
famine and appalling loss of life in extended regions. The wide¬ 
spread suffering was alleviated only in part by extensive measures 
of relief, financed largely by the outside world. 

This breakdown compelled the Bolshevik leaders to discard 
much of their communistic system and to reestablish in part the 
hated capitalistic system which they had thought to abolish utterly. 
The opening of the year 1923 witnessed a partial revival of the 
economic life of the country. The final outcome of this extraordi¬ 
nary and tragic adventure in communism and "the dictatorship of 
the proletariat ” is hidden in the future. 

960 . Italian Fascism. 1 Fascism was a post-war movement in 
Italy. The Fascisti have been called the spiritual sons of Gari¬ 
baldi. 2 The aptness of this designation will appear as we become 
acquainted with their ideals and their way of realizing them. 3 


1 The term Fascism comes from the name of the bundle of rods (fasces), inclosing 
an ax which was borne before the ancient Roman magistrates as the symbol of supreme 
authority (sect. 232). 

2 See sect. 855. 

3 A prelude to the Fascist movement was a Garibaldian adventure by the eccentric 
Italian poet Gabriele d’Annunzio at Fiume. Fiume is an important port city near the 
head of the Adriatic Sea. Its population is predominantly Italian, and thus it could be 
regarded as a part of Italia Irredenta , the liberation of which was one of the objects of 
Italy’s entry into the World War on the side of the Allies. But the city is the only 
available port on the Adriatic for the new Slav kingdom of Jugoslavia, and so in the 
readjustment of national boundaries by the Paris Peace Conference it was given to 
that state. This disposition of the matter was displeasing to many Italian patriots. 
D’Annunzio, assuming the role of a nineteenth-century Garibaldi, gathered a force of 


722 


THE POST-WAR PERIOD 


[§ 960 


The first aim of the Fascisti was the suppression of a dangerous 
communistic movement which because of the weakness and in¬ 
action of the government threatened the overthrow of things in 
Italy even as the Bolsheviki had overturned the existing govern¬ 
mental and industrial system in Russia. For very soon after the 
war the workers in many of the cities of Italy not only seized the 
factories and mills, dispossessing the owners, but in some cities 
even usurped all the functions of government, passing laws, collect¬ 
ing taxes, and administering justice. In a word, they were fol¬ 
lowing in the footsteps of the Russian Bolsheviki. 

The Italian government being, as we have said, weak and timid, 
there grew up a conviction that if the situation was to be saved the 
citizens themselves must organize as a gigantic vigilance committee 
and assume control of affairs. The leader of this movement was 
Benito Mussolini, an inflammatory orator and war veteran. With 
arms in their hands the Fascisti fought the Communists, or Reds, in 
the city streets and wherever they found them. It was virtually 
civil war. The strength of the Fascisti grew apace. Their organi¬ 
zations came to include hundreds of thousands of determined and 
armed young men, mostly veterans of the World War. D’Annun¬ 
zio’s "soldiers of fortune,” now that the adventure at Fiume was 
ended, swelled the ranks of this new civilian army. From their 
uniform these "sons of Garibaldi” were called the "black shirts.” 

Thus organized and armed the Fascisti were masters of the situa¬ 
tion. They demanded that the government be given into their 
hands. More than a hundred thousand strong they marched upon 
Rome. King Victor Emmanuel, bowing to necessity, invited Mus¬ 
solini, who was now virtually dictator of Italy, to take the 
premiership, form a new cabinet, and assume the responsibility of 
government. This he did, and straightway inaugurated a program 
of much-needed financial and economic reform. The success of the 
so-called Bloodless Revolution was complete. "Bolshevism in 
Italy was dead.” 

volunteers, and, seizing the city, annexed it to Italy. The whole enterprise was in dis¬ 
obedience to the orders of the Italian government and was foredoomed to failure. The 
matter was finally settled by a treaty between Italy and Jugoslavia (Treaty of Rapallo, 
1920) whereby Fiume was made an independent state. 


§ 961 ] 


THE WASHINGTON CONFERENCE 


723 


961 . The Washington Conference on the Limitation of Naval 
Armaments. 1 After the rise of Japan as a great power the Far 
East became one of the dangerous storm centers of the world. 
Japan’s intentions regarding China were under suspicion. She was 
thought to be imperialistic. It was believed that she wished to 
control the great resources and monopolize the important trade 
of China. Her continental policies and activities threatened to 
cramp and imperil the industrial and commercial interests of the 
United States. Hence strained relations between the two coun¬ 
tries, war talk, and dangerous competition in naval construction. 

Such was the Far Eastern situation when on the invitation of 
President Harding there met at Washington, toward the close of 
the year 1921, representatives of the United States, Great Britain, 
France, Italy, Japan, China, Holland, Belgium, and Portugal to 
confer respecting these world-disturbing matters. This was the most 
important assembly of nations since the Paris Peace Conference. 

After an address by President Harding, in which he stressed the 
necessity, if civilization was to endure, of lessening the agencies of 
destruction in war, Secretary Charles E. Hughes, speaking on be¬ 
half of the American delegation, made, as part of a detailed plan 
for the limitation of naval armaments, this proposal: "It is pro¬ 
posed,” he said, "that for a period of not less than ten years there 
should be no further construction of capital ships [and] that 
further reduction should be made through the scrapping of the 
older ships.” 

The proposal was received with mingled amazement and joyous 
applause. It sent a thrill throughout the world. In the words of 
one of the British delegates, Mr. Balfour, the bold proposal "made 
the opening day of the Congress one of the landmarks in human 
civilization.” 

Under the proposal the United States was to scrap thirty ships, 
including fifteen capital ships in process of construction and on 
which more than $330,000,000 had already been spent. This was 
the sacrifice that the United States was willing to make in order 
that an agreement might be reached for an immediate limitation of 

1 Opened November ii, 1921; closed February 6, 1922. 


724 


THE POST-WAR PERIOD 


[§ 961 


naval armament. The other powers maintaining the great navies 
of the world were asked to take action that "would be fairly com¬ 
mensurate with this action on the part of the United States.” All 
acceded at once to the proposal in principle; details were arranged 
in later conferences. 1 

In acceding to the proposal Great Britain gave up the place that 
she had held for more than a century as the greatest naval power 
(indeed, as the equal of any other two naval powers) in the world 
and accepted a position of virtual equality in sea power with the 
United States. 

What is known as the Five-Power Naval Treaty embodied and 
confirmed the agreements eventually reached. This treaty was 
the outstanding achievement of the Conference. Secretary Hughes, 
in speaking of its significance, said: "No more extraordinary or 
significant treaty has ever been entered into. . . . This treaty 
ends—absolutely ends—the race in competition in naval arma¬ 
ment. At the same time it leaves the relative security of the great 
naval powers unimpaired.” 

Another accomplishment of the Conference hardly less vital was 
a treaty negotiated under its influence between China and Japan 
by the terms of which the Shantung province was restored to 
China. 2 On the significance of this settlement and its relation 
to the world-wide nationalist movement we have commented in 
another connection (sect. 957). 

Still other important achievements of the Conference were a 
treaty binding the United States, Great Britain, France, and Japan 
to respect each other’s insular possessions in the Pacific and to 
adjust all disputes arising among themselves through conference 
and mediation; 3 and a treaty adopted by the United States, Great 
Britain, France, and Italy, in which, declaring the use of sub¬ 
marines against merchant ships to be piracy and denouncing the 

1 The total tonnage in capital ships (great fighting ships) to be allowed to each of the 
five main navies was as follows : United States, 525,000 ; British Empire, 525,000 ; Japan, 
315,000 ; France and Italy, 175,000 each. These figures are in the ratio of 5 : 5 :3 : i|. 

2 At the same time Japan withdrew her military forces from the maritime provinces 
of Siberia. 

3 By this Four-Power Treaty the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, which was so disturbing 

to Anglo-American relations, was abrogated. * 


§ 962] 


GERMAN REPARATIONS 


725 


use of poison gas in warfare as something abhorrent to civilization, 
they agreed to be bound "as between themselves” not to use either 
agency in war. 

These several accomplishments render the Conference one of the 
most important of international assemblages. President Harding, 
in congratulating the delegates on their work, said, "You have 
written the first deliberate and effective expression of great powers 
. . . of war’s utter futility, and challenged the sanity of competi¬ 
tive preparation for each other’s destruction.” 

962 . German Reparations; France occupies the Ruhr Dis¬ 
trict. The Treaty of Versailles, it will be recalled, bound Ger¬ 
many to pay such sum in reparation for the devastation she had 
caused in the countries of the Allies as a commission might decide 
to be just. This amount was finally fixed at $33,000,000,000. In 
case of default the Allies could, under the terms of the treaty, take 
such measures to enforce payment as they deemed necessary. 

Toward the close of the year 1922, the German government 
having failed to meet its obligations in money payments and in 
deliveries of wood and coal, the French government, supported 
actively by Belgium and morally by Italy, exercising its right of 
coercion, marched a strong force into the Ruhr Valley, the chief 
industrial district of Germany. 

The seizure of the Ruhr by France brought to a close America’s 
participation in the "Watch on the Rhine.” As soon as the United 
States government learned that France had decided on the use of 
coercion in the collection of reparation payments, President Hard¬ 
ing recalled the last contingent of the American troops still in 
Germany. The Stars and Stripes were lowered from the fortress 
of Ehrenbreitstein, 1 where four years before they were thrown out 
to the breeze. Thus was "brought to a close America’s adventure 
in Europe.” 

What the end of the French adventure in the Ruhr will be is 
left for time to reveal. 


1 January 24, 1923. 







































































































APPENDIX 


A. SOURCE BOOKS 

Davis, W. S., Readings in Ancient History, 2 vols. Thallon, I. C., Readings 
in Greek History. Fling, F. M., A Source Book of Greek History. Webster, 
FI., Readings in Ancient History. Munro, D. C., A Source Book of Roman His¬ 
tory. Monroe, P. M., Source Book of the History of Education for the Greek and 
Roman Period. Robinson, J. H., Readings in European History , 2 vols. Ogg, 
F. A., A Source Book of Mediceval History. Lee, G. C., Source-Book of English 
History. Henderson, E. F., Select Historical Documents. Kendall, E. K., 
Source-Book of English History. Whitcomb, M., A Literary Source-Book of the 
Italian Renaissance. 

B. TOPICS FOR CLASS REPORTS 1 

Chapter I. 1. The relation of domesticated animals to man’s advance in 
civilization: Shaler, N. S., Domesticated Animals, pp. 103-151; Daven¬ 
port, E., Domesticated Animals and Plants, chap. i. 2. The making and the 
use of fire : Mason, O. T., The Origin of Invention , chap, iii, and Eirst Steps 
in Human Culture , chaps, i, ii; Frobenius, L., The Childhood of Man, chap, 
xxvii. 3. The origin of writing: Hoffmann, W. J., The Beginnings of Writ¬ 
ing-, Mason, O. T., Eirst Stefs in Human Culture, chap, xxi; Tylor, E. B., 
Anthropology, chap, vii ; Keary, C. F., The Dawn of History, chaps, xii, xiii. 
4. The dawn of art: Reinach, S., Apollo, pp. 1-9; Parkyn, E. A., Introduc¬ 
tion to the Study of Prehistoric Art, chaps, iii, iv. 

Chapter II. 1. The unity of the human race: Ratzel, F., The History of 
Mankind, vol. 1, pp. 3-5. 2. Physical characteristics as a basis of classifica¬ 
tion : Haddon, A. C., The Races of Man and their Distribution, pp. 1-6. 

Chapter III. 1. Characteristics of Egyptian art: Reinach, S., Apollo, 
pp. 17-22. 2. Industrial arts: Maspero, G., Egyptian Archeology, chap. v. 
3. Dwellings of the poor and of the rich : Maspero, G., Egyptian Archeology, 
pp. 2-28. 4. The market and the shops : Maspero, G., Life in Ancient Egypt 
and Assyria, chap. ii. 5. The Tell el-Amarna letters: Breasted, J. H., His¬ 
tory of Egypt , pp. 332-337, 382-389, 393 ; Ball, C. J., Light from the East, 
pp. 86-94. 

Chapter IV. 1. French excavations at Tello : Hilprecht, H. V., Explora¬ 
tions in Bible Lands, pp. 216-260. 2. American excavations at Nippur: 
Peters, J. P., Nippur, vol. ii, chaps, ii-x; Hilprecht, H. V., Explorations in 

1 Mildred C. Bishop and Edward K. Robinson’s Practical Map Exercises in Medieval 
and Modern European History will be found serviceable in map studies. 

i 


11 


APPENDIX 


Bible Lands, pp. 285-568. 3. The temple archives: Jastrow, M., The Civili¬ 
zation of Babylonia and Assyria, pp. 316-318. 4. Moral maxims and penitential 
psalms: Jastrow, M., The Civilization of Babylonia and Assyria, pp. 464-465, 
469-474. 5. Excavations and discoveries at Nineveh: Layard, A. H., Nineveh 
and its Remains. 6. Assyrian art: Reinach, S., Apollo , pp. 23—27* 7 * A royal 
hunting adventure: Maspero, M., Life in Ancient Egypt and Assyria, chap. xiv. 

Chapter V. 1. Israel in Egypt: Petrie, W. M. F., Egypt and Israel, chap. ii. 
2. The Song of Deborah (Judges v): Schmidt, N., The Message of the Poets, 
pp. 354-362. 3. Some Hebrew laws concerning the poor and the bondsman : 
Exod. xxii, 25-27 ; xxiii, 10; Deut. xv, 7-15; xxiv, 6, 10-13. 

Chapter VI. 1. Phoenician commerce and its influence upon the progress 
of civilization: Keller, F., Colonization, pp. 28-30, 38-39. 2. The Tyrian 
purple dye: Rawlinson, G., The Story of Phoenicia, pp. 5, 6, 275-282. 3. A 
Phoenician adventure — the circumnavigation of. Africa : Rawlinson, G., The 
Story of Phoenicia, chap. xii. 4. Croesus and Solon: Herodotus, i, 29-33 (retold 
in Church, Herodotus, pp. 3-10). 

Chapter VII. 1. Persian character and public and private life: Rawlin¬ 
son, G., Five Great Monarchies, vol. iii, chap, iii, pp. 164-247. 2. The Royal 
Road from Susa to Sardis: Herodotus, v, 52-54. 3. The Parsees, the modern 
representatives of the ancient fire-worshipers: see Encyc. Brit., vol. xx (nth 
ed.), under " Parsees.” 

Chapter VIII. 1. The old Chinese civil-service competition examinations: 
Martin, W. A. P., The Lore of Cathay, chap, xvii; Doolittle, J., Social Life 
of the Chinese , chap, xv-xvii. 2. The worship of ancestors and filial piety: 
Martin, W. A. P., The Lore of Cathay, chap, xv; Legge, J., The Religion of 
China, lect. ii, pp. 69-95 5 Giles, H. A., The Civilization of China, pp. 75-77. 

Chapter IX. 1. The nature and features of the land as factors in Greek 
life and history : Grote, G., History of Greece, vol. ii, pp. 153— 157 ; Holm, A., 
History of Greece, vol. i, pp. 29, 30; Abbott, E., Histoiy of Greece, vol. i, 
pp. 19-23; Bury, J. B., History of Greece, pp. 4, 5. 2. The marble quarries of 
Paros: Manatt, J. I., rEgean Days, chap, xvii, "Paros the Marble Island.” 

Chapter X. 1. Tales of Crete — Minos, Theseus, and Ariadne : Harrison, 
J. A., The Story of Greece, chap. viii. 2. Change in the opinion of scholars in 
regard to the historical elements in Greek legends : Baikie, J., The Sea-kings 
of Crete, chap. i. 3. Summary of excavations and discoveries in Crete : Hall, 
H. R. II., Aigean Archceology, chap. ii. 4. The palace at Cnossus : Mosso, A., 
The Palaces of Crete, chaps, iv, v. 5. Aegean art: Mosso, A., The Palaces of 
Crete, chap, xiii; Hall, H. R. H., ALgean Archceology , chap. vii. 

Chapter XI. 1. Delphi and the oracle: Richardson, R. B., Vacation Days 
in Greece, pp. 24-33. 2 - The Olympic Festival: Gardiner, E. N., Greek Ath¬ 
letic Sports and Festivals, chap, ix; Gardner, P., A T ew Chapters in Greek His¬ 
tory, chap. ix. 3. Gymnastics : Blumner, II., The Home Life of the Ancient 
Greeks, chap. viii. 4. Demeter and Persephone, and the Eleusinian mysteries: 
Frazer, J. G., Spirit of the Corn and of the Wild (The Golden Bough), vol. i, 
chap, ii; Fairbanks, A., Mythology of Greece and Rome, chap, vi, pp. 171-183; 
Gayley, C. M., Classic Myths (consult index). 5. The Greek doctrine of 


APPENDIX 


ill 


"divine envy": consult Herodotus (Rawlinson’s trans.) by index under 
" Croesus,” " Polycrates," and " Artabanus.” 

Chapter XII. i. Argos and King Pheidon: Holm, A., History of Greece, 
vol. i, chap, xvii, pp. 202-208; Bury, J. B., History of Greece , chap, iii’ 
PP- X 39 _I 44 - 2 - Ibe Helots of Laconia: Thucydides, iv, 80; Plutarch, 
Lycurgus , xxvii; Grote, History of Greece , vol. ii, chap, vi, pp. 291-298. 

Chapter XIII. 1. The trade of the Pontus, or Euxine: Curtius, E., His - 
tory of Greece , vol. i, pp. 439-441. 2. Relations of a colony to its mother city: 
Curtius, E., History of Greece , vol. i, pp. 496-500. 3. The Delphic oracle 
and Greek colonization: Herodotus, iv, 150-153, 156-159; Curtius, E., 
History of Gi'eece , vol. ii, pp. 49, 50. 4. Tales of the tyrants Cypselus, 

Polycrates, and Periander: Herodotus (consult index). 

Chapter XIV. 1. The environment of Athens: Tucker, T. G., Life in 
Ancient Athens , chap. ii. 2. Story of Solon and Croesus: Plutarch, Solon , 
xxvii, xxviii. 3. The Council and the Assembly (Ecclesia) : Tucker, T. G., 
Life in Ancient Athens , chap. xiii. 4. Dwelling houses: Gulick, C. B., The 
Life of the Ancient Greeks , chap. iii. 5. The occupations of farming and herd¬ 
ing: Gulick, C. B., The Life of the Ancient Greeks , chap. xvii. 6. The Athe¬ 
nian vase trade (" One of the most interesting phenomena in the history of 
ceramic art is the absorption of the market of the world by Attic wares.”) : 
The Annual of the British School at Athens, No. xi, pp. 224 ff., " The Distribu¬ 
tion of Attic Vases"; Fowler, H. N., and Wheeler, J. R., Greek Archeol¬ 
ogy » PP- 47 i- 5 ° 6 . 

Chapter XV. 1. The Delphic oracle given the Athenians at the beginning 
of the Persian War : Herodotus, vii, 140-143. 2. The trireme : Gulick, C. B., 
The Life of the Ancient Greeks , chap, xv, pp. 199-205. 3. Themistocles in 
council and in battle at Salamis : Plutarch, Themistocles , xi-xv. 

Chapter XVI. 1. The walls of Athens and the Piraeus : Bury, J. B., History 
of Greece , pp. 330-332^ 377. 2. Aristides the Just; his ostracism: Harrison, 
J. A., The Story of Greece , pp. 317—321. 3. The public buildings of Athens: 
Reinach, S., Apollo , chap, vi; Fowler, H. N., and Wheeler, J. R., Greek 
Archeology, pp. 144-150, 155—157. 4. "A Day in Athens”: Tucker, T. G., 
Life in Ancient Athens, chaps, vi, vii; Blumner, H., The Home Life of the 
Ancient Greeks , chap, v, pp. 179-201. 5. Trades and manufactures: Gulick, 
C. B., The LJfe of the Ancient Greeks, chap, xviii, pp. 227-238. 6. Various classes 
of the population: Tucker, T. G., Life in Ancient Athens, chap. iv. 7. Civic 
duties of citizens: Gulick, C. B., The Life of the Ancient Greeks, chap. xvi. 
8. The things seen in a walk about your own city which remind you of the 
contributions of Greece to our civilization. 

Chapter XVII. 1. The Athenian army and navy: Tucker, T. G., Life in 
Ancient Athens, chap. x. 2. The condemnation of the Athenian generals after 
the battle of Arginusae (406 B.c.): see any comprehensive history of Greece. 
3. "Festivals and the Theaters": Tucker, T. G., Life in Ancient Athens, 
chap. xii. 4. " An Athenian trial" : Tucker, T. G., Life in Ancient Athens, 
chap. xiv. 5. The trial and condemnation of Socrates: Grote, G., History 
of Greece, vol. vii, pp. 140-172. 


IV 


APPENDIX 


Chapter XVIII. i. The youth and training of Demosthenes: Pickard- 
Cambridge, A. W., Demosthenes, chap. i. 2. Imperialism vs. Home Rule, or, 
Was Demosthenes’ policy of opposition to Philip wise ? Mahaffy, J. P., Prob¬ 
lems in Greek History , chap, vii, " Practical Politics in the Fourth Century.” 
3. Alexander’s visit to the oracle of Zeus Ammon: Wheeler, B. I., Alexan¬ 
der the Great, chap. xxi. 4. Alexander’s letter to Darius: Bury, J. B., History 
of Greece , pp. 761, 762. 5. " The Marriage of Europe and Asia”: Wheeler, 
B. I., Alexander the Great, chap, xxx, pp. 476-479. 

Chapter XIX. 1. The Museum and Library at Alexandria: Mahaffy, J. P., 
Greek Life and Thought, chap, ix, pp. 192-197. 2. Rhodes as a center of Hel¬ 
lenistic culture: Holm, A., History of Greece, vol. iv, chap, xxii; Mahaffy, 
J. P., Stoiy of Alexanders Empire, chap, xx (last part). 3. The Stoics and the 
Epicureans : Mahaffy, J. P., Survey of Greek Civilization, pp. 256-264. 4. The 
Grove of Daphne at Antioch: Lew Wallace, Ben Hur, bk. iv, chaps. v,*vi. 

Chapter XX. 1. Greek art as a reflection of Greek history: Gardner, P., 
Principles of Greek Art, chap, xix, " Art in Relation to History.” 2. Building 
material and methods: FowlEr, H. N., and Wheeler, J. R., Greek Archeol¬ 
ogy, chap, ii, pp. 96-108. 3. The Great Altar of Zeus Soter at Pergamum : 
Reinach, S., Apollo, pp. 69, 70; Fowler, II. N., and Wheeler, J. R., Greek 
Archeology, pp. 181-183, 284-286. 4. Attic art: Tucker, T. G., Life in 
Ancient Athens, chap. xvi. 5. Greek painting and mosaic: Fowler, H. N., 
and Wheeler, J. R., Greek Archeology, chap, ix; Gardner, P., Principles of 
Greek Art, chap. xii. 

Chapter XXI. 1. Sappho: Manatt, J. I., AEgean Days, chap, xxv, "Les¬ 
bos and the Lesbian Poets.” 2. Presentation of a Greek drama at Athens; 
Tucker, T. G., Life in Ancient Athens, chap. xii. 3. Pindar: Mahaffy, J. P., 
Survey of Gi'eek Civilization, pp. 91-96. 

Chapter XXII. 1. The life of Socrates: IIopkinson, L. W., Greek Leaders, 
PP- 79 —101 > Leonard, W. E., Socrates: Master of Ltfe, pp. 31-61. 2. Ex¬ 
tempore declamations by the Sophists : Walden, J. W. H., The Universities 
of Ancient Greece, chap. xi. 

Chapter XXIII. 1. Greek education: Blumner, H., Home Life of the 
Ancient Greeks, chap, iii ; Gulick, C. B., Life of the Ancient Greeks, chap, vii ? 
Tucker, T. G., Life in Ancient Athens, chap. ix. 2. Student days: Walden, 
J. W. II., The Universities of Ancient Greece, chap. xiv. 3. Social life and 
entertainments: Gulick, C. B ., Life of the Ancient Greeks, chap, xiv ; Tucker, 
T. G., Life in Ancient Athens, chap. vii. 4. Greek slavery: Blumner, II., 
LLome Life of the Ancient Greeks, chap. xv. 5. Funeral customs: Tucker, 
T. G., Life in Ancient Athens, chap. xv. 

Chapter XXIV. 1. Geographical conditions tending to make the history of 
Italy different from that of Greece: Freeman, E. A., Historical Geography 
of Europe, vol. i (text), pp. 7-9. 2. " V hile the Grecian peninsula is turned 
towards the east, the Italian is turned towards the west” (Mommsen); show 
the influence of this geographical fact on the history of each land. 

Chapter XXV. 1. The family cult and the patriapotestas : Johnston, II. W., 
The Private Life of the Romans, pp. 28-32 ; Wilkins, A. S., Roman Antiquities, 


APPENDIX 


v 


chap. iii. 2. The Roman character : Wilkins, A. S., Roman Antiquities , chap. i. 

3. The position of women : Johnston, H. W., The Private Life of the Romans, 
pp. 64-66. 4. Prehistoric Rome : Lanciani, R., Ancient Ro?ne in the Light of 
Recent Discoveries , chap, ii, " The Foundation and Prehistoric Life of Rome.” 

Chapter XXVI. 1. Legend of the Fabii: Livy, ii, 48, 49. 2. Virtues prized 
by the early Romans as shown by the stories of their heroes (Mucius Scaevola, 
Cincinnatus, Lucius Junius Brutus, Marcus Curtius, etc.): find these tales by 
use of the indexes of available histories. 

Chapter XXVII. 1. Was the action of the Roman Senate in the affair of the 
Caudine Forks honorable? Livy, ix, 2-11 ; How, W. W., and Leigh, H. D., 
History of Rome, pp. 108-110. 2. Tales of the Pyrrhic War: Plutarch, Pyrrhus. 
3. The system employed by the Roman engineers in tunneling mountains: 
Lanciani, R., Ancient Rome in the Light of Recent Discoveries, pp. 61-62. 

Chapter XXVIII. 1. Hannibal’s passage of the Alps: Polybius, iii, 50-56. 

2. The battle of the Metaurus (207 b. c.) : Creasy, E. S., Decisive Battles of 
the World, chap. iv. 3. Change effected in Roman life and manners through 
contact with corrupt Hellenism: Mommsen, T., vol. ii, bk. iii, chap, xiii, 
pp. 480-491; Plutarch, Marcus Cato-, Seignobos, C. (Wilde ed.), History of 
Ancient Civilization, chap. xxii. 

Chapter XXIX. 1. Roman slavery: Johnston, H. W., The Private Life 
of the Romans, chap, v, pp. 87-111. 2. Marcus Livius Drusus, the champion of 
the Italians : consult by index any comprehensive history of Rome. 3. Cicero 
and his friends as admirers of things Greek: Mahaffy, J. P., The Greek World 
under Roman Sway, chap. vi. \. The conspiracy of Catiline: Church, A. J., 
Roman Life in the Days of Cicero , chap. vii. 5. Causes of the fall of the 
Republic: Flow, W. W., and Leigh, FI. D., History oj Rome, chap, xxxi; 
Seignobos, C. (Wilde ed.), History of Ancient Civilization , pp. 274-278. 

Chapter XXX. 1. The significance of the defeat of Varus by the Germans 
under Arminius, a. d. 9: Creasy, E. S., Decisive Battles of the World, chap. v. 

2. The life of the court under the early Empire: Friedlander, L., Roman 
Life and Manners , vol. i, pp. 70-97. 3. Means of communication: Fried¬ 
lander, L., Roman Life and Manners, vol. i, pp. 268-322 ; Davis, W. S., The 
Influence of Wealth in Imperial Rome, pp. 80-105. 

Chapter XXXI. 1. Pompeii and what we have learned of Roman life from 
its remains: Mau, A., Pompeii : its Life and Art. 2. Letters, books, and libra¬ 
ries: Johnston, H. W., The Private Life of the Romans, pp. 287-298. 3- An 
election campaign in Pompeii: Abbott, F. F., Society and Politics in Ancient 
Rome, pp. 3-21. 4. The Hadrian Wall in Britain: Bruce, J. C., The Roman 

Wall. 5. The spread of Christianity in the first two centuries : Friedlander, 
L., Roman Life and Manners , vol. iii, chap, ii, pp. 1S6-214. 6. The cata¬ 
combs: Lanciani, R., Pagan and Christian Rome, chap. vii. 7. Zenobia, 
"Queen of the East”: Wright, W., An Account of Palmyra and Zenobia. 

Chapter XXXII. 1. Motives underlying the Diocletian persecution of the 
Christians: Mason, A. J., The Persecution of Diocletian, chap. iii. 2. The 
Council of'Nicma: Carr, A., The Church and the Roman Empire, chap. v. 

3. The founding of Constantinople: Oman, C. W.C., The Byzantine Empire,, 


VI 


APPENDIX 


pp. 13-30. 4. Julian and the pagan restoration: Carr, A., The Church and 
the Roman Empire , chap, vii; Gardner, A., Julian the Philosopher , and the 
last Struggle of Paganism against Christianity. 5 - Efforts of Diocletian to fix 
prices of provisions and wares : Abbott, F. F., The Common People of Ancient 
Rome , pp. 145-178. 

Chapter XXXIII. 1. Alaric the Goth: Bradley, H., The Goths , chap, x, 
pp. 84-98. 2. St. Jerome: Carr, A., The Church and the Roman Empire, 

chap. xiv. 3. St. Augustine and his City of God ; Carr, A., The Church and 
the Roman Empire , chap, xv; Cutts, E. L., Saint Augustine, chap, xx, 
pp. 184-194; Dill, S., Roman Society in the Last Century of the Western Em¬ 
pire, pp. 59-73. 4. Causes of the downfall of the Empire in the West: Hodg¬ 
kin, Seeley, and Bury, as cited above in " References,” p. 232; Davis, W. S., • 
The Influence of Wealth in Imperial Rome, chap. viii. 

Chapter XXXIV. 1. Roman art: Reinach, S., Apollo, pp. 87-94. 2. Edu¬ 
cation of the Roman boy : Johnston, H. W., The Private Life of the Romans, 
chap. iv. 3. The gladiatorial combats : Johnston, H. W., The Private Life of 
the Romans, pp. 242-264 ; Friedlander, L., Roman Life and Manners, vol. ii, 
chap, i, pp. 41-62. 4. Roman luxury: Friedlander, L., Roman Life and 
Manners, vol. ii, chap, ii; Davis, W. S., The Influence of Wealth in Imperial 
Rome, pp. 152-187. 5. Character and motives of Roman benefactions: 

Abbott, F. F., The Common People of Ancient Rome, pp. 179-204. 

Chapters XXXV and XXXVI. 1. Life and work of Cassiodorus; his state 
papers: Hodgkin, T., Theodoric, chap, ix, pp. 160-173. 2. The German con¬ 
quest of Gaul: Adams, G. B., The Growth of the Erench Nation, chap. ii. 

Chapter XXXVII. 1. The religion of the Germans and their conversion: 
Seignobos, C., History of Mediceval and Modern Civilization, chap. ii. 2. The 
scriptorium and the labors of the monks as copyists, chroniclers, and authors: 
Putnam, G. IF, Books and their Makers during the Middle Ages, vol. i, pp. 3-81. 
3. The monasteries as industrial colonies: Cunningham, W., Western Civiliza¬ 
tion ( Mediceval and Modern Times), pp. 35-40. 

Chapter XXXVIII. 1. The spread of the Latin speech and the formation 
of the Romance languages: Abbott, F. F., The Common People of Ancient 
Rome, pp. 3-31. 2. The contribution made by the Germans to civilization: 
Adams, G. B., Civilization during the Middle Ages, chap. v. 3. The influence 
of the Roman law upon the law systems of Europe : Hadley, J., Introduction 
to Roman Law, lect. ii. 

Chapter XXXIX. 1. Justinian as a builder; St. Sophia: Oman, C. W. C., 
The Byzantine Empire, chap, viii, pp. 106-n 1 ; Gibbon, E., Decline and Ball, 
chap, xl (consult table of contents). 2. Introduction into Europe of the silk 
industry: Gibbon, E., Decline and Fall, chap, xl (consult table of contents). 
3. The Hippodrome and the " Blues” and the "Greens”: Oman, C. W. C., 
The Byzantine Empire, chap, ii, pp. 22-25 ; chap, vi, pp. 75-80 ; Munro, D. C., 
and Sellery, G. C., Mediceval Civilization , pp. 87-113. 

Chapter XL. 1. Mohammed: Carlyle, T., Heroes and Hero-worship, lect. ii, 
"The Hero as Prophet.” 2. Some teachings of Islam : Gilman, A., The Saracens, 
chap, xv; Seignobos, C'., Histoiy of Mediceval and Modern Civilization, chap. iv. 



APPENDIX 


Vll 


Chapter XLI. i. Charlemagne and his court: Davis, H. W. C., Charle¬ 
magne , chap. x. 2. A letter of Charlemagne summoning an abbot with his 
men to a general assembly : Ogg, F. A., A Source Book of Mediaeval History, 
pp. -141-144. 3. Alcuin and the Palace School: West, A. F., Alenin and the 
Rise of the Christian Schools , chap. iii. 4. The import of the restoration of 
the Empire: Bryce, J., The Holy Roman Empire (8th ed.), chaps, iv, v, xxi 
(a subject for the advanced student). 5. The things needed to be done, 
which Charlemagne did : Adams, G. B., Civilization during the Middle Ages, 
pp. 154-169. 

Chapter XLII. 1. Voyages of the Northmen to America: Fiske, J., The 
Discovery of America, vol. i, chap. ii. 2. The siege of Paris by the Northmen : 
Ogg, F. A., A Source Book of Alediceval History, pp. 168-171. 3. Rollo (Rolf) : 
Jewett, S. O., Story of the Northmen, chap. ii. 4. Alfred’s interest in learning- 
Ogg, F. A., A Source Book of Mediceval History, pp. 185-195; Colby, C. W., 
Selections, pp. 19-22. 

Chapter XLIII. 1. Life on a mediaeval English manor, or vill: Cheyney, 
E. P., Industrial and Social Histoiy of England, chap. ii. 2. The open-field 
system of cultivation : Seebohm, F., The English Village Community, chap. i. 
3. The spirit of knight-errantry: Cutts, E. L., Scenes and Characters of the 
Aliddle Ages, pp. 353-368. 

Chapter XLIV. 1. Effects on England of the Norman Conquest: Free¬ 
man, E. A., The Norman Conquest, chap. xiv. 2. Life in the manor house : 
Traill, H. D. (ed.), Social England, vol. i, pp. 375-382. 3. Why the battle of 
Hastings is regarded as one of the decisive battles of history: Creasy, E. S., 
Decisive Battles of the World, chap. vii. 

Chapter XLV. 1. The monastery of Cluny: Munro, D. C., and Sellery, 
G. C., Alediceval Civilization, pp. 137-152. 2. The strife over investitures: 
Seignobos, C., History of Alediceval and Alodern Civilization , pp. 105-109. 
3. Emperor (elect) Henry IV at Canossa: Stephens, W. R. W., Hildebrand 
and his Times , pp. 126-132. 

Chapter XLVI. 1. The speech of Pope Urban II at the Council of Cler¬ 
mont : Ogg, F. A., A Source Book of Alediceval History , pp. 284-288. 2. Saint 
Bernard and his preaching of the Second Crusade: Morison, J. C., The Life 
and Times of St. Bernard, pp. 415-428. 3. Stories from the Crusades which 
formed material for literature: Munro, D. C., and Sellery, G. C., Mediceval 
Civilization, pp. 269-276. 

Chapter XL VII. 1. St. Francis of Assisi and the world into which he 
came: Jessopp, A., The Coming of the Friars, pp. 2-23. 2. St. Dominic and 
the Friars in England: Jessopp, A., The Coming of the Friars, pp. 23-52. 
3. The quarrel between Pope Boniface VIII and Philip the Fair of France: 
Emerton, E., The Beginnings of Modern Europe, pp. 116-123. 

Chapter XLVIII. 1. Marco Polo at the Mongol court: Brooks, N., The 
Story of Marco Polo, pp. 111-162. 2. The Janizaries: Oman, C. W. C., The 
Byzantine Empire, pp. 324, 325; Creasy, E. S., History of the Ottoman Turks, 
vol. i, pp. 21-24, 161. 3- The conquest of Constantinople: Oman, C. W. C., 
The Byzantine Empire , pp. 343-350; Gibbon, E., Decline and Fall, chap, lxviii. 


APPENDIX 


• * • 

vm 

Chapter XLIX. i. The gilds in English towns: Cheyney, E. P ., An Intro¬ 
duction to the Industrial and Social History of England, pp. 59-73. 2. City life 
in Germany: Munro, D. C., and Sellery, G. C., Mediaeval Civilization, 
pp. 358-365. 3. The Hanseatic League: Henderson, E. F ., A Short History 
of Germany (1902 ed.), vol. i, pp. 189-202. 

Chapter L. 1. The "Nations” at the universities: Compayre, G., Abelard, 
pp. 96-107. 2. Student life: Munro, D. C., and Sellery, G. C., Mediceval 
Civilization , pp. 348-357 ; Compayre, G., Abelard, pp. 263-279. 3. The 
teachers: Compayr£, G., Abelard, pp. 279-286. 

Chapter LI. 1. The Black Death: Hecker, J. F. C., The Epidemics of the 
Middle Ages, chaps, i-vi; Green, J. R., History of the English People, vol. i, 
pp. 428-433 (for effects of the plague in England). 2. The fall of Granada: 
Prescott, W. H., History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, Part I, 
chap, xv; or Irving, W., The Conquest of Granada. 3. Savonarola, the burn¬ 
ing of the "vanities”: Clark, W., Savonarola, chap. xv. 4. Introduction of 
trial by torture in the later mediaeval period: Seignobos, C., History of 
Mediceval and Modern Civilization, pp. 215-220. 

Chapter LII. 1. The mediaeval feeling for nature: McLaughlin, E. T., 
Studdes in Mediceval Life and Literature , pp. 1-33. 2. Petrarch’s ascent of 
Mount Ventoux: Robinson, J. H., and Rolfe, II. W., Petrarch, pp. 307-320. 

3. Dante and his Divine Comedy: Lowell, J. R., Among my Books (Second 
Series), pp. 1-26. 4. The'new feeling for the ruins of Rome: Burckhardt, J., 
The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy , pp. 177-186; Symonds, J. A., Ihe 
Revival of Learning, pp. 142-157. 5. Aldus Manutius and the Aldine Press: 
Putnam, G. H., Books and their Makers, vol. i, pp. 417-440. 

Chapter LIII. 1. Prince Henry the Navigator: Bourne, E. G., Essays in 
Historical Criticism, Essay No. 6. 2. The civilization of the Aztecs : Fiske, J., 
The Discovery of America, vol. ii, chap, viii, pp. 215-239. 3. The civilization 
of the Peruvians: Fiske, J., The Discovery of America, vol. ii, chap, ix; 
Winsor, J., Narrative and Critical History of America , vol. i, chap. iv. 

Chapter LIV. 1. Luther at the Diet of Worms : Vedder, H. G., The Refor¬ 
mation in Germany, pp. 137-164; Freytag, G., Martin Luther, pp. 50-59. 
2. Erasmus at Oxford: Seebohm, F., The Oxford Reformei's, pp. 94—116; 
Emerton, E., Desiderius Erasmus, chap. iii. 3. The Counter-Reformation: 
Seignobos, C., Histoiy of Mediceval and Modern Civilization, chap. xxi. 

4. Luther and the German [Bible: Smith, P., The Life and Letters of Martin 
Luther, chap, xxiii. 

Chapter LV. 1. The abdication of Charles the Fifth: Prescott, W., His¬ 
tory of the Reign of Philip the Second, vol. i, chap, i; Motley, J. L., The Rise 
of the Dutch Republic , vol. i, chap. i. 2. Causes of Philip’s failure: Hume, 
W. A. S., Philip II of Spain, pp. 1-6. 3. Results of the expulsion of the 
Moriscos from Spain: Lea, H. C., The Moriscos of Spain, pp. 394-401. 

Chapter LVI. 1. Sir Thomas More and his romance Utopia : Seebohm, F., 
The Oxford Reformers, pp. 346-365.- 2. The fall of Wolsey: Creighton, M., 
Cardinal Wolsey, chap. x. 3. Thomas Cromwell and the "English Terror”: 
Green, J. H., History of the English People, vol. ii, pp. 164-191. 


APPENDIX 


IX 


Chapter LVII. i. Sand dunes, dikes, and polders'’ of the Low Countries: 
see Encyc. Brit., nth ed., under "Holland.” 2. The image-breakers: Motley, 
J. L., The Rise of the Dutch Republic , vol. i, pp. 551-576. 3. How the seven¬ 
teen provinces were divided into two groups and the basis was laid of 
present-day Holland and Belgium: Harrison, F p , William the Silent , chap, xi, 
pp. 195-202. 

Chapter LVIII. 1. Henry IV’s renunciation of the Huguenot faith: Wil- 
lert, P. F., Henry of A 7 avarre, pp. 256-265. 2. The " Grand Design” : Mead, 
E. D., The Great Design of Henry IV. 3. Settlements of Huguenots in Brazil 
and Florida: Parkman, F\, Pioneers of France in the New World, pp. 9-179. 

Chapter LIX. 1. Condition of Germany at the end of the war: Gardiner, 
S. R., The Thirty Years' War, pp. 217-221. 2. Hugo Grotius: White, A. D., 
Seven Great Statesmen, pp. 55-110. 3. Some results of the Reformation: 
Seebohm, F., The Era of the Protestant Revolution, pp. 218-233. 

Chapter LX. 1. Emperor Joseph II as a benevolent despot: Bright, J. F., 
Joseph II, chaps, iv-ix ; Seignobos, C ., Ilistoiy of Contemporaiy Civilization , 
pp. 76-80. 2. Ideas of King James I on the royal power: Lee, G. C., Source- 
Book of English History, pp. 337, 338. 

Chapter LXI. 1. The " Assiento” : Moses, B., Establishment of the Spanish 
Rule in America, chap. xi. 2. P>ance in America during the reign of Louis 
XIV: Fiske, J., New England and New France, chap. iv. 3. Life at court: 
Seignobos, C., History of Mediceval and Modern Civilization , pp. 351-356; 
Taine, H. A., The Ancient Regime (trans. by J. Durand), pp. 86-122. 

Chapter LXII. 1. The character and traits of James I: Henderson, E. F., 
Side Lights on English History, pp. 33-42. 2. Trial and execution of Charles I: 
Henderson, E. F., Side Lights on English Ilistoiy, pp. 85-92. 3. The Irish 
" Cromwellian Settlement ” : Trendergast, J. P., Cromwellian Settlement of 
Ireland. 4. Did Cromwell desire to be king: Lee, G. C., Source-Book of Eng¬ 
lish History, pp. 3S9-392. 

Chapter LXIII. 1. Why the battle of Poltava (Pultowa) is given a place 
among the decisive battles of history: Creasy, E. S., Decisive Battles of the 
World , chap. xii. 2. The founding of St. Petersburg: Rambaud, A., Histoiy 
of Russia, vol. ii, pp. 101-105. 3. Introduction'of Western civilization into 
Russia: Seignobos, C., History of Contemporary Civilization, pp. 17-28. 

Chapter LXIV. 1. The Teutonic Knights and the beginnings of Prussia: 
Henderson, E. F., Short History of Germany (ed. 1902), vol.T chap, viii, 
pp. 172-181. 2. Frederick the Great’s boyhood, character, and political phi¬ 
losophy: Marriott, J. A. R., and Robertson, C. G., The Evolution of Prussia, 
chap, iv, pp. 113-119. 3. Frederick the Great as an Enlightened Despot: 
Bourne, FI. E., The Revolutionary Period in Europe, chap, iv, pp. 48-51. 

Chapter LXV. 1. The industrial revolution in England: Bourne, Id. E., 
The Revolutionary Period in Europe, chap. vi. 2. The struggle between Eng¬ 
land and France for colonial supremacy: Seignobos, C., History of Contem¬ 
porary Civilization , pp. 42-46. 3. Extract from speech of Earl Chatham on 
England’s policy toward the American colonies : Kendall, E. K., Source - 
Book of English History, pp. 350—354- 


X 


APPENDIX 


Chapter LXVI. i. What the term Ancient Rigime stands for: Seignobos, 
C., History of Contemporary Civilization , pp. 92-106. 2. Life in Paris under 

the Reign of Terror: Stephens, H. M., History of the French Revolution , 
vol. x, chap, ii, pp. 343-361. 3. "The Reign of Terror as a political experi¬ 
ment”: Mathews, Shailer, The French Revolution , chap. xvi. 

Chapter LXVII. 1. The sale of Louisiana to the United States: Roose¬ 
velt, Theodore, The Winning of the West (1905-1908 ed.), vol. iv, pp. 1S4- 
212; Gilman, D. C., fames Monroe (American Statesmen), pp. 74—93 > Hos- 
mer, J. K., History of the Louisiana Purchase. 2. Napoleon at St. Helena : 
Lord Rosebery, Napoleon: the Last Phase. 

Chapter LXVIII. 1. Prince Metternich and Napoleon: Malleson, G. B., 
Life of Prince Metternich , chap. ix. 2. The theory of absolutism and the theory 
of constitutionalism in iS r 5 : Seignobos, C ., History of Contemporary Civiliza¬ 
tion , pp. 204-207. 

Chapter LXIX. 1. The Dreyfus case: IIazen, C. D., Modern European 
Histoiy, pp. 396-400. 2. The separation of Church and State: IIazen, C. D., 
Modern European History , pp. 400-403. 3. Part taken by France in nineteenth- 
century progress: Seignobos, C., History of Contemporary Civilization , 

PP- 437 - 441 - 

Chapter LXX. 1. Irish problems — church, land, and Home Rule: Lavell, 
C. F., and Payne, C. E., Imperial England , chap. xiii. 2. Factory legislation 
regulating the employment of children and women: Cheyney, E. P., An 
Introduction to the Industrial and Social History of England , pp. 244-260. 
3. Darwin, and the establishment of the theory of evolution (" one of the 
greatest, if not the greatest scientific achievement of the nineteenth century”): 
Wallace, A. R., The Wonderful Century , chap. xiii. 

Chapter LXXI. 1. The political reaction in Italy and Count Cavour: 
White, A. I>., Seven Great Statesmen , pp. 319-388. 2. The alliance between 
Italy and France: Latimer, E. W., Italy in the A T ineteenth Century , chap. x. 

Chapter LXXII. 1. The Prussian three-class system of voting: IIazen, 
C. D., Modern European History , pp. 311-312. 2. The Frankfort Parliament 
and the results of its failure : Marriott, J. A. R., and Robertson, C. G., The 
Evolution of Prussia , pp. 322-327. 3. The Ems telegram — the altered dis¬ 
patch which precipitated the Franco-German War: Marriott, J. A. R., and 
Robertson, C. G., The Evolution of Prussia , pp. 362-366. 4. " Dropping the 
Pilot” (Bismarck’s dismissal by the Kaiser): The Kaiser vs. Bismarck (the 
third volume of Bismarck’s Reminiscences ), chap. viii. 

Chapter LXXIII. 1. The Russian Mir and the effects upon the serfs of the 
emancipation measure: Wallace, D. M., Russia (new ed., 1905) (consult 
table of contents). 2. Siberia and the exile system : Kennan, G., Siberia and 
the Exile System , Noble, E., Russia and the Russians , chap. xi. 

Chapter LXXIV. 1. Definitions of Socialism: Ely, R. T., Socialism and 
Social Reform, chap. iii. 2. Bolshevik theory and practice: Spargo, J., Bol¬ 
shevism : The Enemy of Political and Industrial Democracy , chap. vii. 

Chapter LXXV. 1. Resume of the history of the lost colonial Empires 
of the earlier modern period: Lord, W. F., The Lost Empires of the Modern 


APPENDIX 


xi 


World. 2. The relation of the later European expansion to the new industry: 
Muir, R., The Expansion of Europe, pp. 145-149. 3. Algeria and Tunis: 
Gibbons, H. A., The A T ew Afap of Africa , chap. vii. 4. The economic resources 
of South Africa: Bryce, J., Impressions of South Africa , chap. xxvi. 

Chapter LXXVI. 1. What was accomplished for world organization by the 
First and Second Hague Conferences: Hull, W. I., The Two Hague Confer- 
ences, pp. 496-500. 2. National versus world sovereignty : Bridgman, R. L., 
World Organization, chap. ii. 3. The international movement between the 
Second Hague Peace Conference (1907) and the Peace Conference at Paris 
(1919): Pollock, Sir Frederick, The League of Nations, chap, iv, "The 
Feague in Sight.” 

Chapter LXXVII. 1. The war aims of Germany as formulated by prom¬ 
inent German leaders : Seymour, C., The Diplomatic Bachground of the War, 
chap, v, " German-World Policy : Moral Factors ” ; Grumbach, S., Germany's 
Annexationist Aims (trans. by J. Ellis Barker), chap, vii, "Germany’s General 
War Aims.” 2. The relation of the Berlin-Bagdad Railway to the World 
War: Jastrow, M., The War and the Bagdad Railway. 3. The Russian Revo¬ 
lution of 1917 : Ross, E. A., The Russian Bolshevik Revolution ; Turner, E. R., 
Europe, 1789-1920, part ii, chap. xiii. 4. Australia’s effort in the war : Simonds, 
F. IF, History of the World War, vol. v, pp. 402-408. 5. The Paris Peace 
Conference at work: Haskins, C. PI., and Ford, R. H.; Some Probletns of the 
Peace Conference, pp. 3-35, "Tasks and Methods of the Conference.” 6. Epi¬ 
logue: Simonds, F. H., History of the World War, vol. v, pp. 383-387. 



INDEX AND PRONOUNCING VOCABULARY 


Note. In the case of words whose correct pronunciation has not seemed' 
to be clearly indicated by their accentuation and syllabication, the sounds of 
the letters have been denoted thus : a, like a in gray ; a, like d, only less pro¬ 
longed; a, like a in have ; a, like a in jar ; a, like a in all ; e, like ee in meet; 
e, like e, only less prolonged; e, like e in end ; e, like e in there ; e, like e in 
err\ i, like i in ptne\ !, like i in pin ; 5 , like o in note ; 6, like <?, only less pro¬ 
longed ; 6, like o in not ; 6, like o in Srb ; oo, like oo in moon ; do, like oo in 
foot ; ii, like u in use ; ii, like the French u ; ae and oe have the same sound 
as e would have in the same position ; c and ch, like k ; 9, like j ; g, like 
g in get', g, like j ; s, like s; ch, as in German ach ; K (small capital) like ch in Ger¬ 
man ich : n. like ni in minion : n denotes the nasal sound in French, being 


similar to ng in song. 

Ab'e lard, Peter, 338 
Abraham, Hebrew patriarch, 35 
Abu Bekr (a/bbb bek'r), first caliph, 
2 73 n. 1 

Ab ys sin'i a, 635 
A chs'a, Roman province, 117 
Achaean League, 116 
A chae'ans, 56 
A ehiPles, 60 
Acre (a'ker), 540 
Acropolis, the, at Athens, 79 
Ac'ti um (ak'shium), battle of, 198 
A dri an 5 'ple, Treaty of, 621 
JE ge'an civilization, the term, how 
used, 57 n. 1. See Contents 
Aegean Sea, islands in, 55 
Ae gos pot'a mi, capture of Athenian 
fleet at, 103 
Ae ofli ans, the, 56 
.E'o lus, 65 n. 1 
ATqui ans, 161 
vEs'chy lus, tragic poet, 130 
Ae td'li an League, 116 
Afghan War, first, 639 
A fra si ah', 328 n. 1 
Africa, Portuguese exploration of, 372; 
partition of, 635; English in, 640; 
French in, 642; Germans in, 645 
Africa, North, recovery of, by Jus¬ 
tinian, 251; conquest of, by the 
Arabs, 273 
Ag a menTnon, 60 

Agincourt (a zhan koor'),battle of, 346 


Ah'ri man, 46 

A hu'ra Maz'da. See Ormazd 
Aisne (an), river, 700 
Aix-la-Chapelle (aks la sha peP),. 

Treaty of (1748), 496 
Aha ric, first invasion of Italy, 225;-. 
wrings ransom from Rome, 226;. 
sacks the city, 226; death, 227 
Albert, archbishop of Mainz, 3S5 
Albert, king of the Belgians, refuses 
German demand for passage of 
troops, 676 

Albert of Brandenburg, 390 n. 2 
Albert the Great, Schoolman, 338 
A 1 bi gen'ses, crusades against, 315 
A 1 9i bFa des, 101, 102, 103 
Alcuin (aFkwin), 280 
Aldine Press, at Venice, 367 
Alexander the Great, 109-114 
Alexander I, Tsar, 551 
Alexander II, 620 n. 2 
Alexandria, in Egypt, 112 
Alexandrian Age, literature of, 132 
Alexandrian Library, 118 
Alfred the Great, king of England, 284 
n. 1 

Algeria, 643 

Ali (a'le), caliph, 273 n. 1 
Allenby, British general, 695 
APli a, battle of the, 164 
Almansur (al man soor'j, caliph, 275 
Alphabet, the Semitic, origin of, 10; 
disseminated by the Phoenicians, 41 


Xlll 


XIV 


INDEX 


A 1 phe'us, river, 54 
A 1 sace' (Ger. El'sass), ceded to 
Germany (1871), 577 ; restored to 
France, 707 
Al'va, duke of, 430 
Ambrose, bishop, 223 
Amiens (a me an'), Treaty of, 544 
Amphitheaters, shows of, 240-242 
Am'y tis, 33 n. 1 
A nab'a sis, 132 

A na'cre on or A nac're on, 128 
An ax ag'o ras, 135 
Ancestor worship, among the Ro¬ 
mans, 150 
Anchorites, 257 

Andalusia (an da lu'she a), origin of 
the name, 227 

Anglo-Saxons, conquest of Britain, 
228. See England 
Angro Mainyus (an'gr 5 mln'yoos). 
See Ahriman 

Anjou (onzhoo'), French province, 341 
Annates, 387 n. 1 ; Act of, 413 
Anti-Semitism, 579 n. 1 
An to ni'nus Pi'us, Roman emperor, 
211 

Antony of Bourbon, king of Navarre, 

4 3 6 

Antony, Mark, the triumvir, 196, 197, 
199 

Antwerp, Spanish fury at, 431 
A pel'les, Greek painter, 126 
Apennines, 147 
Aph'ro di'te, goddess, 65 
Apis, sacred Egyptian bull, 19 
A poc'ry pha, 38 

A pol' 15 , his oracle at Delphi, 65 
Appian Way. See Via Appia 
Apulia, 146 

Aqueducts, Roman, 234 
A qui'nas, Thomas, 338 
Arabian Nights, 276 
Arabic system of notation, 276 n. 1 
Arabs, 249,271. See Mohammedanism 
Aragon, union with Castile, 355 
Ar be'la, battle of, 112 
Ar ca'di a, geography of, 53 
Ar ca'di ans, 53 

Ar ca'di us, Roman emperor of the 
East, 224 

Ar chi me'des, the mathematician, 140 
Architecture, Egyptian, 22; Greek, 
119-126; Roman, 233-235; medi¬ 
aeval, 334 n. 1 


Archons at Athens, 79 
A re op'a gus, council of the, 79 
Ar'go lis, description of, 53 
Ar'go nauts, the, 59 
Argonne (argon') Forest, the, 700 
Ar is tar'chus, the astronomer, 140 
Ar is ti'des, 87, 88 
A ris'ti on, stele of, 123 
A ris to gl'ton, Athenian tyrannicide, 
82 

Ar is toph'a nes, comic poet, 131 
Ar'is tot le, life and works, 137 
Ar'i us, 220 n. 2 
Ar ma'da, Invincible, 424 
Armageddon (ar ma ged'on), battle 
of, 695 

Armenia, 709 n. 1. 

Ar min'i us, 203 

Armistice (of November 11, 191S), 
695, 696 
Ar'y ans, 14 
As'pern, battle of, 554 
Assassination, political, 432 n. 1 
As si en'to, the, 502 
Assignats (as'ignats; Fr. pron. 

a se ha'), 524 n. 1 
Assuan (as swan'), 642 
Assyrian Empire, rise of, 26; political 
history, 29, 30; civilization, 31, 32 
Astrology among the Babylonians, 28 
Astronomy among the Egyptians, 22 ; 

among the Babylonians, 29 
As tu'ri as, the, 355 
Atahualpa (a ta wal'pa), 380 
Athanasius, (ath a na'shi us), 220 n. 2 
A the'na, goddess, 65 
Athenian Empire, 92-97 
Athens, history of, up to the Persian 
Wars, 79-84 ; her fall (404 ]5.c.),io3 
A'thos or Ath'os, Mount, 86 
Attainder, bill of, 470 n. 1 
Attica, 79 
At'ti la, 229 

Auerstiidt (ou'er stet), battle of, 550 
Au'fi dus, river, 176 
Augsburg, Confession, 402 n. 1; Relig¬ 
ious Peace of, 402 
Augurs, College of, 156 
Au'gus tine, his mission to Britain, 255 
Augustine, St. See St. Augustine 
Augustus Caesar. See Octavius 
Au re'li us, Marcus, Roman emperor, 
reign, 211 ; his Meditations, 211 
Ausgleich (ous'gllK), 617 


INDEX 


xv 


Aus'pi ces, taking of the, 156 
Austerlitz (ous'ter lits), battle of, 549 
Australasia, 637 n. 2 
Australia, Commonwealth of, 638 
Austria, under Maria Theresa, 496; 
gains at Congress of Vienna, 568 ; 
in Austro-Hungarian monarchy, 
617-619 

Austria-Hungary, from 1866 to 1914, 
617-619; in the World War, 674, 
681, 683, 695 

Austrian Succession, War of, 496 
Austro-Sardinian War, 598 
Auto-da-fe (a to da fa'), the, 356; at 
Valladolid, 429 
Avignon (a ven yon'), 322 
A'zov, Russians capture, 486 
Aztecs, 379 

Ba'ber, founder of Mongol state in 
India, 326 

Babylon, rise of, 26 ; fall of, 34 
Babylonian Empire, political history, 
26 ; civilization, 27-29 
Bacon, Francis, 427, 465 
Bacon, Roger, 339 

Bactria, conquest of, by Alexander, 

”3 

Bagdad, founded, 274; captured by 
British in World War, 692 
Bal a kla'va, 622 
Bal bo'a, Vasco de, 380 n. 1 
Balkan Wars (1912-1913), the, 673 
Balliol (ban ol), John, Scottish king, 

344 _ w , 

Baluchistan (bal 00 chis tan ), 113 

Ban'nock burn, battle of, 344 
Barca. See Hamilcar 
Barebone, Praise-God, 475 
Barrage (bar'raj or bar raj'), mine, laid 
in North Sea, 705 

Bastille (bas tel'), storming of the, 521 
Batavian Republic (this had been 
created in 1795b made into king¬ 
dom of Plolland, 547 
Baths. See Thermce 
Bautzen (bout'sen), battle of, 561 
Bavaria is made a kingdom, 549 
Bayeux (ba ye) Tapestry, 298 n. 1 
Ba zaine', Marshal, 576 
Bede (bed), the Venerable, 255 n. 1 
Behistun (ba his toon') Rock, 43 
Beirut (ba root'), captured by the 
British, 695 


Belgium, 431 ; war of Louis XIV 
concerning, 455 ; ceded to Austria, 
458; in kingdom of Netherlands, 
568; independent kingdom, 574; 
violated by Germany, 676, 677-679 
Bel 1 sa'ri us, general, 268 
Belleau (bel 16 ') Wood, 697 
Bel ler'ophon , the, 563 
Benedetti (ba na det'te), 613 
Benedictines, order of the, 258 
Benevolences, 409 
Beresina (bereze'na), river, 560 
Ber'gen, 331 

Berlin' (Ger. pron. berlen'), Decree, 
552; Treaty of (1878), 623 
Berlin-Bagdad Railway, 665 
Bernard. See St. Bernard 
Bernstorff (bern'shtorf), German am¬ 
bassador, 687 

Bes sa ra'bi a, ceded to Russia, 623 n. 2 
Bethmann-Hollweg (bet'man-hol'veg; 
Ger. pron. bat'man-hol'vak), Ger¬ 
man Chancellor, 676, 677 
Bible, Luther’s, 389; King James’, 

465 

Bishops’ War, 468 
Bis'marck, Otto von, 608, 616 
Black Death, 346 
Black Hole of Calcutta, 506 n. 1 
Blucher (blii'Ker), 563 
Boeotia (be o'shi a), 52 
Boers (boorz), 640, 641 
Bohemia, in Thirty Years’ War, 442 
Boleyn, Anne (bool'in), 411, 413 
Bologna (bo lon'ya), University of, 335 
Bolsheviki (bol she ve ke'), the, 629 
Bonaparte. See Jerome, Joseph, Louis, 
Napoleon 

Bordeaux (bor d 5 '), 679 
Borodino (bordde'no), battle of, 559 
Borromeo (borroma'o), Carlo, 393 
Bos'ni a, administered by Austria- 
Hungary, 623 ; the Bosnian crisis of 
1908, 671 

Bosphorus (bos'fdrus), the, 74 
Bossuet (bo sii a'), 460 n. 1 
Bosworth Field, battle of, 349 
Bot'ta, M., 31 

Boulogne (boo Ion'), camp of, 548 
Bourbon, House of, accession in 
France, 438; in Spain, 458; re¬ 
stored in France, 561 ; heirs ex- 
pelled from France, 578 
Boxer uprising, 650 


XVI 


INDEX 


Boyne, battle of the, 484 
Brah'ma, 48 
Brahmans, 48 

Brandenburg, electorate of, 493 
Brazil, Portuguese royal family flee to, 

553 

Bren'nus, Gallic leader, 164 
Brest-Litovsk (brest le tovsk'), Treaty 
of, 693 n. 1 

'Bretigny (bre ten yi'), Treaty of, 346 
n. 1 

Bright, John, 583 n. 1 
Britain, Anglo-Saxon conquest of. 252. 
See England 

British navy in the World War, 702 

Bru'ges (Fr. pron. briizh), 331 

Brii maire', Revolution of, 541 

Brunelleschi (brbd nel les'ke), 368 n. 2 

Bruno, Giordano, 394 

Brut'ti um, 146 

Brutus, Marcus, 196 

Buddha (bood'ha), 48 

Buddhism, 48, 49 

Bulgaria, 623 n. 2; in the Balkan 
Wars, 673 ; treaty with the Allies 
(1919), 709 n. 1 

Bundesrath (boon'des rat), the, 614 
Bunyan, John, 479 
Burghley (bur li). Lord, 421 
Bu sen ti'nus, river, 227 
Byron, Lord, 620 n. 1 
Byzantine Empire. See Eastern Em¬ 
pire • 

Byzantium (bi zan'sh! um), founding 
of, 74. See Co?istanti?iople 

Cabinet, English, 503 
Cab'ot, John, 409 
Cad'mus, 58 

Caesar, Augustus. See Octavius 
Caesar, Gaius Julius, 190, 191-196 
Caesarion (se za're on), 198 
Cahiers (ka ya'), 518 
Ca la'bri a, 146 
Calais (kal'iss), 348 
Calendar, Egyptian, 23 ; Babylonian, 
29; Julian, 195; Gregorian, 195n. 1; 
French Revolutionary, 533 
Caliphate of Bagdad, 274, 275 
Calvin. John, at Geneva, 392 
Calvinists, 392 

Cam ba lu', Mongol capital, 325 
Cambronne (kon bron'), 563 n. 1 
Cam bu'ni an Mountains, 54 


Cam by'ses, 43 

Campagna (kam pan'ya), 234 
Cam pa'ni a, 146 

Campo Formio (kam p 5 for'me 0), 
Treaty of, 539 

Campus Martius (mar'shi us), 158 
Canada, ceded to England, 506; Do¬ 
minion of, 636; part in the World 
War, 701, 702 
Can'nae, battle of, 176 
Ca. nos'sa, 307 
Can ta'bri a, 355 
Cafitigny (kon ten ye'), 697 n. 1 
Ca niite', king of England, 284 
Cap'i to line hill, 154 
Ca'pre se, island, 206 
Carnegie (kar na'gi), Andrew, 658 n. 1 
Car o lin'gi an family, beginning of, 252 
Carthage, 172. See Punic Wars 
Cartwright, 509 

Cassiterides (kas i ter'i dez) 40 n. 1 
Cas'si us, Gaius, conspirator, 196 
Caste, Hindu system of, 47 
Castile (kas tel'), the name, 355 ; union 
with Aragon, 355 
Catacombs, 217 
Cathay (kath a'). See China 
Catherine de’ Medici (de ma'de che), 
435 ’ 436 

Catherine II the Great, reign, 490-492 

Catholic Emancipation Act, 587 

Catholic Reaction, 391 

Cat i li'na, Lu'ci us Ser'gi us, 190 

Catiline. See Catilina 

Cato, Marcus Porcius, the Censor, 179 

Ca tul'lus, poet, 235 

Cavaliers, 471 

Cavour (ka voor'), Count, 597, 598,600 
Cayster (ka is'ter), river, 42 
Cecil, William. See Burghley 
(Je cro'pi a, nucleus of Athens, 58 
^e'erops, 58 

Celts, at opening of the Middle Ages, 
248; Christianity among, 255, 256 
-Chaer o ne'a, battle of, 110 
•Chal $id'i ^e, the name, 74 
-Chal'^s, colonies of, 74 
-Chaldaean Empire, 33 
Chalons (shii Ion'), battle of, 229 
Champagne (sham pan'), 700 
Champollion (sham pol'i on), 19 
Channel ports, struggle for, in World 
War, 679 

Cha'res, Greek sculptor, 125 


INDEX 


XVII 


Charlemagne (shade man), king of 
Franks, 277-280 

Charles I, king of England, reign, 
466-472 

Charles II, reign, 480 
Charles VII, king of France, 347 
Charles IX, 436 
Charles X, 573 

Charles V, Emperor H. R. E., com¬ 
missions Magellan, 376; at Diet of 
Worms, 388; reign, 399-403 
Charles II, king of Spain, 458 
Charles XII, king of Sweden, 488, 490 
Charles Martel, 274 
Charles the Simple, king of the 
Western Franks, 285 
Chartism, 583 

Chateau-Thierry (sha td'te ar re'), 699 
Chatham. See Pitt 
Chaucer, Geoffrey, 350 
-Che'ops, 16 

Chev'i ot {or chiv'i ot) Hills, 410 n. 1 
China, early history, 49-51 ; question 
of partition of, 648 ; war with Japan, 

649 ; in process of dismemberment, 

650 ; Boxer uprising, 650 
Chinese, writing, 49; literature, 50; 

competitive examinations, 51 
-GhI'os, island, 55 
Chivalry, 294-297 
Christ, birth, 204 ; crucifixion, 206 
Christian IV, king of Denmark, 443 
Christianity, made in effect state re¬ 
ligion by Constantine, 219; effects 
upon, of imperial patronage, 220; 
one of the most vital elements in 
the Empire, 222 ; heresy and idola¬ 
try suppressed by Theodosius and 
Gratian, 223 ; influence in suppress¬ 
ing the gladiatorial combats, 225 ; 
as factor in mediaeval history, 248 ; 
introduced among the Teutonic 
tribes, 254-256; in French Revolu¬ 
tion, abolished, 533. See Christians 
Christians, persecution of, under 
Nero, 207 ; under Marcus Aurelius, 
211 ; motives of these persecutions, 
211 ; persecutions under Diocle¬ 
tian, 217 ; status under Julian, 221 
Chronicle, Anglo-Saxon, 284 n. 1 
Church, early constitution of, 259; 
separation of the Eastern from the 
Western or Latin Church, 262, 263. 
See Papacy 


Church Councils : Council of Nicsea, 
220; of Trent, 392 ; Vatican, 602 n. 1 
Cicero, Marcus Tullius, First Oration 
against Catiline, 190; proscribed, 
197 ; as an orator, 236 
Cimon, son of Miltiades, 94 
Cin cin na'tus, legend of, 161 
Circus, games of the, 240 
Cisalpine Republic, 539, 541, 547 
Citizenship, Roman, privileges of, 
153 ; demanded by the Italians, 184; 
secured by them as result of the 
Social War, 184; Caesar’s liberality 
in conferring upon provincials, 195 
City-state, the Greek, 62, 63 ; Rome 
as a, 152 

Civil War (1642-1649), in England, 
470-472 

Clan. See Gens 

Clarkson, Thomas, 508 

Clemenceau (Eng. pron. clem en s5'). 

French Premier, 705 
Cleopatra, 198 n. 2, 199 n. 1 
Clients, dependents of the Roman 
family, 151 

Clis'the nes, reforms of, 83 
Clive, Robert, 506 
Clo'vis, king of the Franks, 252 
Cnossus (nos'us), Cretan city, 59 
Cobden, Richard, 583 n. 1 
Codes: Justinian Code, 238; Code 
Napoleon, 545 
Col'et, John, 408 

Coligny, Gaspard de (ko len ye'), 436, 
437 

Colonies, Greek, 73-76; Latin, 170, 
171 ; Roman, 170; European, 378, 
634 

Co los se'um, 233 
Colossus of Rhodes, 125 n. 1 
Columbus, Christopher, 373 
Co mi'tia centuriata , 158 
Comitia curiata, 152 
Co mi ti um , 157 

Commons, English House of, origin, 
343. See Parliament , English 
Commonwealth of England, 472-475 
Compass, invention of, 371 n. 2 
Con cor'dat, French, of 1801, 544 
Confederation of the Rhine, 549 
Confucius, Chinese sage, 50 
Congo Free State, 635 
Con'stan tine the Great, reign, 218- 
221 


INDEX 


xviii 


Constantine VI, Eastern emperor, 278 
Constantinople, founded, 220; be¬ 
sieged by Saracens, 274 ; captured 
by crusaders, 312; by Ottoman 
Turks, 327 

Constituent Assembly, French, 520- 

5 2 5 

Consuls, Roman, first, 159 
" Contemptibles,” the, 680 n. 2 
Continental Blockade, 552 
Conventicle Act, 480 
Cook, James, Captain, 6 37 
Co per'ni cus, Nicholas, 371 n. 1 
Cor cy'ra, island, 55 
Cordeliers (Eng. pron. kor de lers'), 
club, 525 
Cor'do va, 276 
Cor fin'i um, 184 

Corinth, destroyed by Romans, 117 
Corinthia, description of, 53 
Corn, free distribution of, at Rome, 
243 

Corn Laws, English, repealed, 583 n. 1 
Corneille (kor nay'), 460 
Cor ne'li a, mother of the Gracchi, 183 
Cor'pus Ju'ris Civi'lis, 238 
Cortes (Span. pron. kortas'), Her¬ 
nando, 379 

Coup d'Etat (koo da ta'), of Brumaire, 
541 ; Louis Napoleon’s, 575 
Covenanters, 468 
Cranmer, Thomas, 419 
Crassus, Marcus Licinius, 191, 192 
Crecy (kres'i), battle of, 345 
Crete, in Greek legend, 55, 58 
Crimea, war in, 621 
Croe'sus, king of Lydia, 43 
Cromwell, Oliver, 471, 473-477 
Cromwell, Richard, 477 
Cromwell, Thomas, 412 
Crusades, 309-317 
Cuneiform writing, 27 
Curfew, the, 301 
Curia, in early Rome, 152 
Customs Union, German, 606 
Cuzco (kooz'ko), 381 
Qyc'la des, the, 55 
Cyclopes (si klo'pez), the, 65 n. r 
(^yn'ics, the, 139 n. 1 
Cyprus, ceded to England, 623 
£yr e na'i ca, 76, 673 
Qy re'ne, 76 
Qyrus the Great, 34, 42 
(^yrus the Younger, 105 


Czechoslovakia (chek'o slo viik'i a), 
709 n. 1 

Czechs (cheKs ^rcheks), 618 
Dacia, 210 

Danes. See Scandinavians 
Dante, Alighieri (a le ge a're), 364 
Dan'ton (Fr. pron. don ton'), 534 
Danzig (dant'siK), made a free city, 
707 

Dardanelles (darda nelz'), attempt to 
force by Anglo-French fleet (1915), 
684 

Darius I, 43; expeditions against 
Greece, 86 

Darnley, Ilenry Stuart, Lord, 423 
David, king of Hebrews, 36 
De cem'virs, 162-164 
Declaration of Rights (English), 481, 
482 

Declaration of the Rights of Man 
(French), 523 
Delhi (del'e), 326 
De'los, Confederacy of, 92 
Delos, island-, 55 
Delphi, temple at, 120 
Delphian oracle, the, 65 ; its services 
in Greek colonization, 74 n. 1 ; mes¬ 
sage to the Athenians at time of 
Persian Wars, 90; oracle given 
Spartans at beginning of Pelopon¬ 
nesian War, 98 

Demarcation, Papal Line of, 375 
Demosthenes, no, 132 
Denmark, in Thirty Years’ War, 442 
Descartes (da kart'), 460 n. 1 
Des i de'ri us, king of Lombards, 277 
Dias (de'as), Bartholomew, 372 
Di cas'ter ies, Athenian, description 
of, 95 

Dictator, Roman, his powers, 159 
Di o cle'tian, Roman emperor, 215- 
218 

Di og' e nes, the Cynic, 139 n. 1 
Di o ny'sus, 65 n. 1 ; Theater of, at 
Athens, 122 

Disestablishment of State Church, in 
Ireland, 588; in Wales, 589 n. 1; 
proposed in England and Scotland, 

589 

Disraeli (dizra'li), 589 
Divina Commedia (de ve'na kom ma'- 
de a), 364 
Divination, 155 


INDEX 


xix 


Divine right of kings, the theory, 
449; its history, 450; opinion of 
James I on, 462; opinion of Louis 
XIV on, 453 ; opinion of Emperor 
William II on, 661 
Doge (doj), 333 

Domesday Book (doomz'da), 300 
Domestication of animals, 8; of 
plants, 9 

Dominicans, order of the, 320 
Dorians, conquer the Peloponnesus, 
69 

Draco, his code, 80 
Dragonnades (drag o nadz'), 456 
Drake, Francis, 425 
Drama, the Attic, origin of, 129 
Dra vid'i ans, 47 n. 2 
Dreibund (drCboont), 615 
Dreyfus (drafiis / ), Captain, 579 n. 1 
Drogheda (droch'e da), 473 
Dual Alliance, the, 578 n. 2 
Duma, Russian, 626 
Dunajec (dob na'yets), battle of the, 
681 n.4 

Dunbar, battle of, 474 
Dutch. See A T etherlands 
Dutch colonies, at the Cape, 640; in 
East Indies, 640 n. 1 

East India Company, English, 506,639 
Eastern Empire, 268-270 
Ebro (a'bro), river, 554 
Ec cle'si a, at Athens, 79 
Edda, the, 283 n. 1 

Edict, of Nantes, 439; revoked, 456; 
of Grace, 440 

Education, Chinese, 51 ; Greek, 141 ; 

Roman, 239; at Sparta, 71 
Edward, the Confessor, king of Eng¬ 
land, 284 
Edward I, 344 
Edward VI, 417 
Eg'bert, king of Wessex, 253 
Egypt, political history, 15-18; civi¬ 
lization, 18-23; under the Ptole¬ 
mies, 117; England in, 642; becomes 
a British protectorate, 642 n. 2 
Elba, 561 

Elbe (elb ; Ger. pron. ePbe), river, 446 
Elgin (el'gin), Lord, 124 m 1 
E'lis, description of, 54 
Elizabeth, queen of England, reign, 
420-427 

Elizabeth, tsaritsa, 497 


Ems telegram, the, 613 
England, origin of name, 252 ; Anglo- 
Saxon conquest, 252; Danish con¬ 
quest, 284; Norman conquest and 
rule, 298-302 ; under the houses of 
Plantagenet, Lancaster, and York, 
341-349. See Contents 
English colonies, under Elizabeth, 42 5; 
under James I, 464; in Seven Years’ 
War, 505 ; in American Revolution, 
506; at close of nineteenth century, 
634, 636-642 

Enlightened despotism, theory of, 452 
E pam i non'das, 107, 108 
Eph i aPtes, Greek traitor, 89 
EplYors, the, at Sparta, 70 
Ep ic te'tus, the Stoic, 237 
Ep i cu'rus, 139 
E pl'rus, district of, 52 
E ras'mus, Desiderius, 408 
Eridu (a'rl doo), city, 25 
Erinyes (e rin'i ez), the, 65 n. 1 
Eritrea (a re tra'a), 643 n. 1 
Eschenbach (eslYen bach), Wolfram 
of, 358 n. 1 

Estates-General. See States-General 
E triPri a, 146 
E trus'cans, 147, 148 
Eu boe'a, island, 55 
Eu'clid, the mathematician, 139 
Eumenides (umenl dez), the, 65 n. I 
Euphrates, valley of the, 24 
Eu rip'i des, tragic poet, 130 
Eu ro'tas, river, 54 

Euxine Sea (uk'sin), Greek colonies 
on, 75 

Excommunication, effects of, 306 
Eylau (Clou), battle of, 551 

Fabius Maximus, Quintus, ” the De¬ 
layer,” 174 , 175 - 
Factory Acts, English, 583 n. 1 
Falkland (fokdand) Islands, German 
squadron destroyed at, 703 n. 2 
Family, the Roman, 150, 151 
Fasces (fas'sez), the, 152 
Fashoda (fa shb'da) incident, the, 
644 n. 1 

Fenelon (fan Ion'), 460 n. 1 
Ferdinand of Aragon, 355 
FeHales. See Fdei’alds 
Feudalism, 286-294 
Field of Cloth of Gold, 401 n. 1 
Firdusi (fer doo'se), 328 


XX 


INDEX 


Fire, origin of its use, 7 
Fire-worshipers, 46 
Flodden Field, battle of, 410 n. 1 
Foch (fosh), Marshal, 694 
Forum, Roman, in time of the kings, 
157 

France, in the Middle Ages, 351-355. 
See Contents 

Francis I, king of France, 400-402 
Francis II, 435 

Francis II, Emperor II. R. E., makes 
Treaty of Campo Formio, 539; as 
Francis I, emperor of Austria, 549 
Francis II, king of Two Sicilies, 600 
Francis Ferdinand, Austrian Crown 
Prince, assassinated, 674 
Franciscans, order of the, 320 
Franco-Prussian War, 576, 612 
Frankfort (Ger. Frankfurt), Treaty of 
(1871), 577 ; Constituent Assembly 
at, 608 n. 2 

Franks, form first settlement in Gaul, 
227 ; under the Merovingians, 252 ; 
their conversion, 254 
Frederick IV, king of Denmark, 489 
Frederick I, Barbarossa, Emperor 
II. R. E., in Third Crusade, 311, 
312; quarrel with Pope Alexan¬ 
der III, 318 

Frederick (III) I, king of Prussia, 493 
Frederick II, the Great, 495-500 
Frederick the Wise, elector of Sax¬ 
ony, 389 

Frederick William, Great Elector of 
Brandenburg, 493 

Frederick William I, king of Prussia, 
494 

Frederick William III, campaign of 
Jena, 666 

Frederick William IV, 607, 608 
French and Indian War. See Seven 
Years' 1 IVar 

Friedland (fretTant), battle of, 551 
Froissart (frw'a saF), 354 

Ga'des, 40 

Ga le'ri us, Roman emperor, 218 
GaPli a Cis al pi'na, origin of name, 
146 

Gama, Vasco da, 374 
Garibaldi (ga re baFde), sketch of life, 
598 ; in Sicily and Naples, 600 
Gaul, conquest of, by Caesar, 191. See 
Gauls 


Gauls sack Rome, 164 
Gau'ta ma. See Buddha 
Ge dro'si a, 113 

Geiseric (gFzerik), Vandal leader, 

. 230 

Gens (clan), the, in early Rome, 152 
George I, king of England, 503 
George II, 503 
George III, 503 

German Confederation, 604-611 
German East Africa, 645 
German Empire, New, formed, 613 ; 
history of, up to World War, 613- 
617; transformed into a republic, 
696 n. 2. See IVoi'ld War 
German imperialism, 662 
German Southwest Africa, 645 
German tribes. See Teutons 
Germany, in the Middle Ages, 357 ; 
from the Congress of Vienna to 
the proclamation of the New Ger¬ 
man Empire, 604-613. See Holy 
Roman Empire and German Empire, 
New 

Ghent, Pacification of, 431 
Ghiberti (ge ber'te), sculptor, 36S n. 2 
Gibraltar, 458 
Gideon, Hebrew judge, 35 
Gilds, mediaeval, 329 
Girondins (ji ron'dinz), in Legislative 
Assembly, 525; execution of, 531, 
. 532 

Gladiatorial combats, given by Augus¬ 
tus, 203; their suppression, 225; 
attitude of Christians toward, 22;; 
general description of the shows, 
240-242 

Gladiators, war of the, 188 
Gladstone, William Ewart, 585, 591, 
592 

Godfrey (god / fn)ofBouillon(booyon ), 
3 10 

Goethe (ge'te). 558 n. 1. 

Gordian knot, 111 n. 1 
Goths, Eastern. See Ostrogoths 
Goths, Western. See Visigoths 
Grac'chus, Gaius, 183 
Gracchus, Tiberius, 182, 183 
Gra nii'da, conquest of, 355 
Grand Alliance, of 1689, 457 ; of 
1701, 458 

Grand Design of Henry IV, 439 n. 1 
Gra ni'cus, battle of, 111 
Gravelotte (grav lot'), battle of, 576 



INDEX 


xxi 


Great Britain, the name, 502. See 
England 

Great Moguls, the, 326 
Great Schism, the, 322 n. 2 
Great Wall, the Chinese, 51 n. 2 
Grecian games, influence of, 67 
Greece, geography of, 52-56; in 
modern times, 620 n. 1, 621 n. 1 
Greek Empire. See Eastern Empire 
Greeks, their legends, 57-61 ; inheri¬ 
tance of, 62-68. See Hellenes 
Greenland, discovered by the North¬ 
men, 283 

Grotius (gro'shi us), Hugo, 447 
Guadalquivir (gwa dal ke ver'), river, 
275 

Guillotine, the, 532 
Guiscard (ges kar'), Robert, 298 n. 1 
Guizot (ge z 5 '), 574 
Gunpowder, effects of use in war, 293 
Gustavus II, Adolphus, king of Swe¬ 
den, 443, 444 

Gutenberg (goo'ten berk), John, 367 
<Gy lip'pus, Spartan general, 102 

Hades (ha'dez), 64 
Hadrian, Roman emperor, reign, 210 
Hadrian Wall in Britain, 210 
Hague (hag) Conference, First, 658 ; 
Second, 658 

Ha miPcar Barca, Carthaginian gen¬ 
eral, 174 
Hamites, 14 

Hammurabi (ham moo ra'be), Baby¬ 
lonian king, 2S ; his code, 28 
Hampden, John, 468 
Hanging gardens of Babylon, 33 n. 1 
Hannibal, 174-177 

Hanover, House of, in England, 
5°3 n - 1 

Han se at'ic League, 330 
Ilardenburg, Prince von, 558 
Hargreaves (har'grevz), 509 
Har mo'di us, Athenian tyrannicide, 82 
Harold, king of England, 299 
Harun-al-Rashid (ha robn'al ra shed' 
or ha rdon'al rash'id), caliph, 275 
Ilas'dru bal, brother of Hannibal, 176 
Ilasdrubal, son-in-law of Hamilcar, 

174 

Hastings, battle of, 299 

Hebert (a ber'), 534 

Hebrews, the, 35-38 

Hegira (he jl'ra or hej'i ra), the, 272 


Heidelberg (hl'del berk), 457 
Hejaz (hej az'), kingdom of the,70911.1 
Helgoland (hePgo lant) ceded by 
Great Britain to New German 
Empire, 569 n. 2 ; dismantled, 708 
IlePi con, Mount, 54 
HePlas, term defined, 52 
Hel le'nes, or HePlenes, 52, 56. See 
Greeks 

Hellenistic culture, 115 
IlePles pont, the, 74 
Heloi'se (a 16 ez'), pupil of Abelard, 
338 

Ileflots, the, at Sparta, 70 

Helvetic Republic, formed, 540 

Henry VII, king of England, 409 

Henry VIII, reign, 410-416 

Henry III, king of France, 438 

Henry IV, reign, 438-440 

Henry IV, Emperor H.R. E., 307 

Henry, Prince, the Navigator, 372 

Hep'tar ehy, Saxon, 253 

He'ra, 65 

Her'a cles, 58 

Heralds, College of, 156 

Her cu la'ne um, 209 

Hermann. See Arminius 

He rod'o tus, 131 

Herzegovina (hert se go ve'na), 623, 
672 

He'si od, 128 

Hieroglyphics, Egyptian, 18 n. 1 
HiPde brand. See Pope Gregory VII 
Ilindenburg Line, the, 700; broken, 
694 _ 

Ilindenburg (hin'den boork), 681 n. 2 
Hip par'ehus, astronomer, 140 
Hipparchus, Athenian tyrant, 82 
Hip'pi as, 82 
Hittites, the, 17 

Hohenstaufen (ho'en stow fen), Ger¬ 
many under, 319 

Hohenzollern (hS'en tsol lern), House 
of, in Brandenburg, 493 ; in Prussia, 

493 - 5 °° 

Holland. See Netherlands 
Holstein (hol'stln), duchy of, 610 
Holy Alliance, 570 
Holy Office. See Inquisition 
Holy Roman Empire, name attaches 
to Western Empire, 281 ; relations 
of, to the Papacy, 303 ; results for 
Germany of the renewal of the 
imperial authority, 357 ; end of, 549 


XXII 


INDEX 


Homage, ceremony of, 287 
Home Rule, Irish, 592 
Homeric poems, 68, 127 
IIo no'ri us, Roman emperor, 224 
Horace, poet, 203, 235 
Ilor ten'si us, jurist, 236 
Hos'pi tal ers, order of the, 311 
Howard, John, 508 n. 2 
Hubertsburg, Treaty of, 497 
Huguenots (hu'ge nots), name, 436 
n. 1 ; wars, 435-441 
Humanism, 363-369. See Renaissance 
Humbert I, king of Italy, 601 n. 1 
Hundred Years’ War, 345-348; re¬ 
sults for France, 353 
Hungary, origin of kingdom, 324; 
Revolution of 1848 in, 607 n. 1 ; in 
Austro-Hungarian monarchy, 617— 
619; dismembered, 709 n. 1 
Huns, drive Goths across the Danube, 
222 ; defeated at Chalons, 229 
Hy met'tus, Mount, 54 

Iceland, settled from Norway, 283 
Iconoclastic controversy, 262 
I hi os. See Trojan War 
Independents, English religious party 
(known at first as Separatists), in 
Civil War, 471 

India, early history, 47 ; English in, 
464, 506, 638 

Indians, American, origin of name, 374 
Indulgences, defined, 384; granting 
of, by Tetzel, 385 ; Luther’s theses 
on, 387 

Industrial Revolution in England, 
508-510 

Industrialism, the New, 628-632 
Infanticide, among the Greeks, 14m. 1 
Inquisition, the, in Languedoc, 315; 
in Spain, 356; procedure of, 394; 
in Netherlands, 429 
Interdict, effects of, 307 
Investiture, contest respecting, 307 
Iona (I 5 'na or e o'na), monastery, 256 
Ionia, cities of, revolt against Per¬ 
sians, 85 

Ionian Islands, the, 55 ; annexed to 
France, 539; ceded to Greece, 
621 n. 1 

Iran (e ran'), plateau of, 42 
Ireland, conversion of, 255 : Cromwell 
in, 473 ; legislative independence, 
507; disestablishment of Church 


in, 588 ; in nineteenth century and 
after, 590-593 

Irene (x re'ne or I ren'), Eastern 
empress, 278 

Isabella, queen of Castile, 355, 357 
Islam. See 1Mohammedanism 
Israel, kingdom of, 37 
Is'sus, battle of, 112 
Isthmian games, the, 67 
Italian allies. See Social War 
Italians, branches of, 148 
I tal'i ca. See Corfinium 
Italy, divisions of, 146; its early in¬ 
habitants, 147—149; no national gov¬ 
ernment during Middle Ages, 359; 
Renaissance in, 361, 363-369 ; from 
the Congress of Vienna to the 
World War, 594-603; enters the 
World War, 683; in the World 
War, 685 n. 4, 692 ; acquires Tren- 
tino and Trieste, 709 n. 1 

Jacobin Club, 525 n. I 
James I, king of England, reign, 
462-466 
James II, 481 
Jan'i za ries, the, 327 
Ja'nus, Roman deity, 155 
Japan, awakening of, 648; war with 
China, 649; war with Russia, 651 
Japanese, racial relationship, 13 
Jena (ya'na), battle of, 550 
Jenghiz Khan (jen'gis khan), 324 
Jeph'thah, Hebrew hero, 35 
Jerome. See Si. Jero 7 ?ie 
Jerome Bonaparte, king of West¬ 
phalia, 552 

Jerusalem, taken by Nebuchadnezzar, 
37; taken by Titus, 208; Latin 
Kingdom of, 310; captured by 
British in World War, 692 
Jesuits. Society of the, 394 
Jews, expelled from Spain, 357 ; polit¬ 
ical disabilities removed in England, 
588. See Jerusalem and Hebrews 
Joan of Arc, 347 
Joffre (zhofr), Marshal, 679 
John, king of England, quarrel with 
Pope Innocent III, 319; forfeits 
lands in France, 341 ; grants Magna 
Carta, 342 

John of Austria, Don, at Lepanto, 405 
Joseph Bonaparte, king of Spain, 553 
Josephus, historian, 38 


INDEX 


Jourdan (zhodr don 7 ), campaign of 

796, 53 8 

Jovian, Roman emperor, 221 
Judah, kingdom of, 37 
Judgment of the Dead, in Egyptian 
theology, 21 

Jugoslavia (yoo'go slav'd a), 709 n. 1 
•Julian the Apostate, reign, 221 
Ju li a'nus, Did'i us, 214 
Jupiter, 154 

Justin'ian, his reign, 268; his code, 
238, 269 

Jutland, naval battle of, 685 n. 3 

Kaaba (ka'ba or ka'a ba), the, 271 
Kant, Immanuel, quoted, 656 
Khufu. See Cheops 
Kiel (kel) Canal, the, 667 n. 1 
Knox, John, 423 

Koniggratz (ke'niK grets), battle of, 
611 

KS'ran, the, 272 

K 5 re'a, 649, 652 n. 3 

Kosciuszko (kos i us'ko), 492 

Kossuth (kosh'oot), Louis, 607 n. 1 

Kremlin, the, 559 

Krii'ger, Paul, 641 

Kublai Khan (kobb'll khan), 325 

Ku ro pat'kin, Russian general, 652 

Kut-el-Amara (koot-el-a ma'ra), 692 n.3 

La Bruyere (la brii yer'), 460 n. 1 
La9 e dae'mon, 54 
La co'ni a, geography of, 54 
Lafayette (la fa yet'), 520 
Lancaster, House of. See Roses , Wars 
of the 

Langland, William, 350 
Langton, Stephen, 319 
Languedoc (lang'gwe dok), 315 
Langue cROc (larig dok'), Lrench 
dialect, 353 _ 

Langue d'Oil (lang dwel'), Lrench 
dialect, 353 
La oc'o on, the, 125 
La'res, cult, 223 

La Rochelle (la ro shel'), Huguenot 
stronghold, 440; siege of, 440 
Las Ca'sas, 381 n. 1 
Latimer, bishop, 419 
Latin colonies. See Colonies 
Latin Empire of Constantinople, 312, 

3*3 

Latin League, 149. See Latins 


xxiii 

Latins, ethnic relationship, 149; re¬ 
volt of Latin towns in 340 B.c., 167 ; 
how treated by Rome after the Latin 
War, 167 
La'ti um, 146 
Laud, William, 467 
League of Nations, preparations for, 
656-658; Covenant of, 706; first 
meeting of Council of the League, 
709 

Leicester (les'ter) Abbey, 412 
Leipzig (Up'tsiK), battle of (1813), 561 
Lem'nos, island, 55 
Lenin (len'in), 692 

Leo the Great, pope, turns Attila 
back, 229; intercedes for Rome 
with Geiseric, 230 
Leo the Isaurian, 262 
Leonardo da Vinci (la o nar'do da 
vin'che), 368 

Le on'i das, king of Sparta, 89 
Leopold II, king of the Belgians, 635 
n. 2 

Leopold of Hohenzollern, offered 
Spanish crown, 612 
Le pan'to, battle of, 404 
Lepidus, Marcus iLmilius, the tri¬ 
umvir, 197, 198 
Les'bos, island, 55 
Lessing, 558 n. 1 
Leuc'tra, battle of, 106 
Leuthen (loi'ten^, battle of, 497 
Licinian laws, 165 
Li cin'i us, Gaius, tribune, 165 
Lictors, attendants of the Roman 
king, 152; consular, 159 
Liege (le ezh'), siege of (1914), 678 
" Light Brigade,” the, 622 
Li gu'ri a, 146 

Ligurian Republic, 539, 547 
Literature, Plebrew, 37 ; Chinese, 50 ; 
Greek, 127-133; Roman, 235-239 ; 
German, beginnings of,358; Lrench, 
beginnings of, 354; Lrench, under 
Louis XIV, 460; English, later 
mediaeval period, 350; English, 
under Henry VIII, 416; English, 
under Elizabeth, 426; English, of 
the Puritan period, 479 
Livingstone, David, 635 
Livy, historian, 236 
Lloyd George, David, 586 
Lombards, kingdom of the, 252; de¬ 
stroyed by Charles the Great, 277 


XXIV 


INDEX 


Lombardy, given to Austria, 568 ; 

ceded to Sardinia, 599 
Long Walls at Athens, 94 ; their dem¬ 
olition by the Peloponnesians, 104 
Lords, House of (English), veto 
power abolished, 585 
Lorraine (16 ran'), part of, ceded to 
German Empire, 577 ; restored to 
France, 707 

Lo thair', Emperor I I. R. E., 281 
Louis I, Prince of Conde (koh da'),436 
Louis IX, king of France, 436 
Louis XIII, 440; reign, 453-461 
Louis XIV, 446, 451, 453-461 
Louis XV, reign, 461 
Louis XVI, 517, 529 
Louis XVII (dauphin), 532 n. 1 
Louis XVIII, 561, 573 
Louis Bonaparte, king of Holland, 
547-555 

Louis Napoleon Bonaparte. See 
A T apoleon III 

Louis Philippe, king of the French, 
574 

Louisiana, ceded to United States, 548 
Louvain (166 van'), university and li¬ 
brary of, destroyed, 678 
Low Countries. See Netherlands, 
Belgium 

Lo yo'lii, Ignatius of, 394 
Lu ca'ni a, 146 
Lucerne, Lion of, 527 n. 2 
Lucretius (lu kre'shl us), poet, 235 
Ludendorff, German general, 693 
Luneville (hi na'vel'), Treaty of, 543 
Lusitania , sinking of the, 682 
Luther, Martin, 386-389 
Lutherans, 391 

Liitzen (liit'sen), battle of (1632), 444 ; 
(1813), 561 

Luxemburg (liik'sem berg) occupied 
by German troops, 677 
Luxury, Roman, 242 
Lyce'um, the, at Athens, 82 
Ly curfgus, legend of, 70 
Lydia, the land, 42; conquered by 
Cyrus the Great, 43 
Ly san'der, Spartan general, 104 

Mac'ca bees, the, 37 

Macedonia, under Philip II, 109; 

after Alexander’s death, 116 
Machiavelli (ma ke a vel'le), Nicholas, 
361 


Madagascar, French in, 644 
Mae ^e'nas, patron of literature, 203 
Magdeburg (mag'de boork), 443 
Magellan, Ferdinand, 376 
Ma gen'ta, battle of, 598 
Magna Carta, 342 

Magna Graecia, the name, 75 ; colo¬ 
nies of, 75 

Ma'go, brother of Hannibal, 176 
Magyars (mod'yorz). See Hungary 
Mainz (mints), 385 
Mai a bar' coast, 374 
Man chu'ri a, Chinese province, oc¬ 
cupied by Russia, 651 
Manorial system, the, 289 
Man ti ne'a, battle of (362 b.c.), 108 
Mar'a thon, battle of, 86, 87 
Marco Po'lo, mentioned, 317; at 
Mongol court, 325 
Mar do'ni us, Persian general, 90 
Ma ren'go, battle of, 543 
Maria Theresa (ma re'a te re'sa), 
queen of Hungary, 496 
Marie Antoinette (mar'i an toi net'), 
5 r 7* 532 

Marie Louise, of Austria, 554 
Ma'ri us, Gaius, is proscribed, 186; 

massacres the aristocrats, 186 
Marne (marn), first battle of the, 
679 ; second, 699 n. 1 
Mars, Roman god of war, 155 
Marseillais (mar se lya'; F. mar se ye'), 
the six hundred, 527 
Marseillaise (marselyaz'; F. mar se- 
yaz'), the, 527 

Marsic War. See Social Wars 
Marx, Karl, 632 n. 1 
Mary I, queen of England, 418 
Mary Stuart, queen of Scots, 422-424. 
Massilia (ma sil'Ia), founded, 76 
Matilda, Countess of Tuscany, 307 
Max im'i an, Roman Emperor, 218 
Maz'a rin, French minister, 454 
Mazurian Lakes, battle of the, 681 n. 2 
Mazzini (matse'ne), Joseph, 596 
Mec'ca, 271 
Medes, the, 42 

Medicine, science of, amongthe Egyp¬ 
tians, 23 

Medina (me de'na), 272 
Melanchthon (me langk'thon),39i n. 1: 
Men e la'us, 60 

Menelik, king of Abyssinia, 643 n. 1 
Merovingians, Franks under, 252 


INDEX 


XXV 


Mer '5 wig, 252 n. 1 
Mesopotamia, 24 n. 2 ; 709 n. 2 
Mes sa'na, Greek colony, 72 
Mes se'ni an Wars, 72 
Metaurus, river, battle of the, 176 
Methodists, rise of, 504 
Metric system, the, 533 
Metternich (met'er niK), Prince, 570 
Meuse (muz), river, 700 
Mexico, conquest by Spain, 379 
Michael Angelo, 368 
Mi lan' Decree, 553 
Mil ti'a des, 86 
Milton, John, 479 
Milvian Bridge, battle at, 218 
Min'ne sing ers, 358 
Mi'nos, king of Crete, 55, 58 
Mir, the Russian, 624 n. 1 
Mirabeau (me ra bo'), 521 
Missolonghi (mis so long'ge), 620 n. 1 
Mith ra da'tes VI, the Great, king of 
Pontus, 186, 189 

Mittel-Europa , Pan-Germanists’ plan 
of, 665 

Modena (m 5 'da na), 599 
Mohammed, 271, 272 
Mohammed II, sultan of the Otto¬ 
mans, 327 

Mohammedanism, rise of, 271-276; 

under earlier caliphs, 273 
Mol da'vi a, partial independence of, 
621, 623 n. 2 
Moliere (mo Iyer'), 460 
Monasteries, suppression of, in Eng¬ 
land, 413-415 
Monasticism, 257-259 
Mongols, their conquests, 324-326 
Monk, George, 477 
Monks. See Monasticism 
Montcalm (mont kam'), 505 
Monte Cassino (m 5 n'ta kas se'nd), 
monastery, 258 

Montenegro (mon te na'gr 5 ), 623 n. 2, 
684 

Mon te zu'ma, 379 

Montfort, Simon de, English earl, 343 
More, Sir Thomas, humanist, 408; 

death, 413; his Utopia , 416 
Moreau (md r 5 '), campaign of, 538 
Moriscos, the, 405 n. 1 ; expulsion of, 
405 

Morocco, 668; the first Moroccan 
crisis (1905), 668; the second 

crisis (1911), 672 


Morton, Cardinal, 409 
Moscow (mos'ko or mos'kow), 559 
Moses, Hebrew lawgiver, 35 
Mosul (mo'sool), 31 
Mountainists, the, 528 
Muk den', battle of, 652 n. 2 
Municipal system, Roman, 166. See 
Alunicipia 

Municip'ia , Roman, 167 
Murat (mii ra'), Joachim, 553 
Mus'co vy, 359 
My ce'nae, 53, 61 n. 1 
Mycenaean Age, 57 n. 1 

Nab 6 ni'dus, king of Babylon, 34 
Nab o po las'sar, 33 
Nantes (nants; Fr. pron. nont), Edict 
of, 439; revocation of, 456 
Naples, kingdom of, founded by 
Normans, 298 n. 1 ; becomes part 
of the kingdom of Italy, 599 
Napoleon I, Bonaparte, guards Con¬ 
vention, 537 ; campaign in Italy, 
538 ; campaign in Egypt, 539 ; over¬ 
throws Directory, 541 ; as Consul 
and Emperor, 543-564 
Napoleon II (king of Rome), 555 
Napoleon III, 575, 576 
Nar'va, battle of, 489 
Naseby (naz'bi), battle of, 471 
Na tal', 641 

Nau'cra tis, founded, 76 
Navarino (na va re'no), battle of, 
620 n. 1 

Nax'os, secedes from the Delian 
League, 93 

Neb u chad nez'zar II, 33 
Neck'er, French minister, 517 
Nelson, Horatio, at battle of the Nile, 
540; at Trafalgar, 550 
Ne'me a, 67 

Nemean games, the, 67 
Nem'e sis, 65 n. 1 

Neolithic Age. See Stone Age , New 
Nero, Roman emperor, 207 
Nerva, Roman emperor, 209 
Netherlands, the, 428-434; inde¬ 
pendent of Holy Roman Empire, 
445; made kingdom of Holland, 
547 ; annexed to France, 555 ; king¬ 
dom of, formed, 568. See Belgium 
New German Empire in the World 
War, 661-711 

New Learning. See Huma 7 iism 


XXV] 


INDEX 


New Zealand, 637, 638 n. 1; in the 
World War, 685, 701 
Ney (na), Marshal, 562 
Nibelungenlied (ne'bel oongen let),358 
Ni 9ae'a, church council at, 220 
Nice (nes), 611 n. 1 
Nicholas I, Tsar, 620 n. 2 
Nicholas II, 620 n. 2; calls the First 
' Hague Peace Conference, 658 ; his 
abdication, 688; his death, 689 
N^ias, Athenian general, 103 
Nihilism, Russian, 625 
Nin'e veh, 26, 30 
NS'gi, Japanese general, 652 n. 1 
Normandy, in French history, 285 
Normans, in Italy and Sicily, 298 n. 1; 

in England, 298-302. See Northmen 
North German Confederation, 611 
Northmen, 282-285. See Scandina¬ 
vians 

Norway, 568 n. 1 

Notre Dame (nS'tr dam), Paris, 533 
Nova Scotia ceded to England, 458 

Octavius, Gaius, opposes Antony, 
197; enters the Second Trium- 
_ virate, 197 ; his reign, 200-204 
O do a'cer, 231 
O dys'seus, 60, 61 
Od'ys sey. See Homeric poems 
O lym'pi a, location of, 54 ; temple of 
Zeus Olympius at, 121 
O lyrn'pi ad, the term, 66 
Olympian Council, the, 64 
Olympian games, the, 66; revival of, 
68 n. 1; influence upon Greek sculp¬ 
ture, 67, 123 
O lym'pus, Mount, 54 
O'mar, caliph, 273 n. 1 
Opium War, 639 n. 1 
Oracles among the Greeks, 65. See 
Delphian oracle 
Orange Free State, 641 
Orange River Colony, 641 
Oratory, Greek, 132; Roman, 236 
Ordeals, among the Teutons, 265-267 
Or'le ans (Fr. pron. or la on'), relief 
of, by Joan of Arc, 347 
Or'mazd, 46 

O si'ris, Egyptian deity, 19 
Os'sa, Mount, 54 
Ostracism, 83, 84 n. 1 
Ostrogoths, cross the Danube, 223 ; 
Kingdom of the, 250 


Oth man', caliph, 273 n. 1 
Othman I, Ottoman prince, 327 n. 1 
Otto I, the Great, restores the Em¬ 
pire, 281 

Ottomans. See Turks 
Ov'id, poet, 203, 235 
O ya'ma, Field Marshal, 652 

Pa'dus. See Po 
Paine, Thomas, 528 
Painting, Greek, 125 
Palatinate, War of the, 457 
Paleolithic Age. See Stone Age , 
Old 

Palestine (pal'es tin), 35-37, 309, 310, 
314, 695, 709 n. 1^ 

Papacy, claims of primacy by the 
Roman bishops, 260; circumstances 
that favored growth, 260-263; ori¬ 
gin of its temporal authority, 262 ; 
relations of, to the H. R. E., 308; 
Concordat of Worms, 308 ; removal 
of papal seat to Avignon, 322; the 
Great Schism, 322 n. 2 ; end of 
temporal power, 601 ; relations with 
Italian government, 602; infalli¬ 
bility of, 602 n. 1. See Popes 
Papyrus paper, 18 
Pa/a lus, Athenian state ship, 104 
Paris, Peace of (1763), 506; (1783), 
507; (1814), 561 n. 1; (1815), 563 
n. 3; (1856), 62^ 

Parliament, English, creation of 
House of Commons, 343 ; effects 
upon, of Hundred Years’ War, 348 ; 
the Long Parliament, 469; the Little 
Parliament, 475; union of English 
and Scotch Parliaments, 502 
Par nas'sus, Mount, 54 
Parsifal (par'se fal), poem of, 358 
Parthenon, the, 121; sculptures of, 
124 n. 1 

Par the n 5 pe'an Republic, 541 
Pascal, 460 n. 1 

Passchendaele (pas Ken da'le) Ridge, 
702 

Pa'ter fa mil'i as, power of, 150 
Patricians, term explained, 154 
Patricius (pa trish'ius). See St. Patrick 
Pau sa'ni as, his treason, 92 
Peace Conference at The Hague, 
First, 658 ; Second, 658 
Peace Convention at Paris (1919), 
705-709 


INDEX 


XXVll 


Peasants’ Revolt, in England, 351 n. 1; 
in Germany, 389 

Pe king', siege of embassies at, 650 
Pe'li on, Mount, 54 
Pel o pon ne'sian War, 98-105 
Pel o pon ne'sus, the name, 52 ; con¬ 
quered by the Dorians, 69 
Pe'lops, 52 

Pe na'tes, Roman household gods, 
worship interdicted, 223 
Pen tel'i cus, Mount, 54 
Per'ga mum (or Pergamus), center of 
Hellenistic culture, 117 n. 1 
Per i an'der, 134 n. 1 
Per'i cles, 94-97 ; funeral oration of, 
99 ; his death, 101 
Per i oe^i, the, in Laconia, 70 
Perry, Commodore, 648 
Per sep'o lis, destroyed by Alexander, 
113 

Pershing, General, 693 
Persian Empire, political history, 42- 
44; nature of government, 45; 
wars with Greece, 85-91; conquered 
by Alexander the Great, m-113 
Peru, Spanish conquest of, 380 
Peter, the apostle. See St. Peter 
Peter I, the Great, Tsar, 485-490 
Peter III, 497 
Petition of Right, 466 
Petrarch, as a humanist, 365 
Petrograd (pye tr 5 grat'), 489 
Phalanx, Macedonian, 109 n. 2 
Pharaoh (fa'ro), the name, 16 
Pha'ros, the, at Alexandria, 118 
Phar'sa lus, battle of, 194 
Phid'i as, his masterpieces, 124 
Phi dip'pi des, Greek runner, 86 
Philip II, Augustus, king of France, 

Philip IV, the Fair, his quarrel with 
Pope Boniface VIII, 321 ; sum¬ 
mons the commons to the National 
Assembly, 352 

Philip II, king of Macedon, 109, no 
Philip II, king of Spain, reign, 404-406 
Philip III, expels Moriscos, 405 
Phi lip'pi, battle at, 198 
Philippines, discovered, 376 
Philistines (fi lis'tinz), 35 
Phi'lo, 38 

Pho'cis, district of Greece, 52 
Phoe'bus. See Apollo 
Phoenicia (fe msh'i a), 39 


Phoenicians, 39-41 
Piave (pe a'va), 692 
Pi ce'num, 146 
Piedmont. See Sardinia 
Pilgrim Fathers, 422, 464 
Pindar, 128 

Pi rae'us, the, fortified by Themis- 
tocles, 94 

Pirates, in the Mediterranean, 188 
Pi sis'tra tus, tyrant of Athens, 82 
Pitt, William, Earl of Chatham, 505 
Pi zar'r 5 , Francisco, 380 
Plan tag'e net, House of, 341 
Plassey, battle of, 506 
Platae'a, battle of, 91 
Plato, life and works, 136 
Plautus, dramatist, 235 
Plebeians (pie be'yans), their status 
in early Rome, 154; significance 
to them of the Servian reforms, 
158; first secession, 159; secure 
admission to the consulship, 165 
Pliny the Elder, 209 
Plu'tareh, 133 
Po, river, 147 

Poison gas, first use of, by the Ger¬ 
mans, 701 

Poitiers (pwa tya'), battle of (1356), 
346 n. 1 

Poland, partitions of, 491, 492, 498; 
under Napoleon, 551, 552 ; Russian 
kingdom of, 568; restoration of, 707 
Poltava (pol ta'va), battle of, 490 
Po lyb'i us, historian, 133 
Pol yg no'tus, painter, 126 
Po lyx'e na, daughter of Priam, 126 
Pom e ra'ni a, 445 

Pompadour (pon pa door'), Madame 
de, 517 

Pompeii (pom pe'yl or pom pa'yee) 
destroyed, 209 n. 1 
Pompey, Gnae'us, the Great, 189, 190, 
191, 193, 194 
Pontifex Maximus, 1 56 
Pontiffs, College of, 156 
Pontus, state in Asia Minor, 116 n. 1 
Popes: Leo I, the Great, 229, 230; 
Gregory I, 255; Leo III, 278; 
Gregory VII, 305-307; Urban II, 
310; Alexander III, 318; Inno¬ 
cent 111,319; Boniface VIII, 321 ; 
Alexander VI, 375; Leo X, 385; 
Clement VII, 412; Sixtus V, 424 ; 
Gregory XIII, 437; Pius VII, at 


XXV111 


INDEX 


Napoleon’s coronation, 546; Pius 
VII, a prisoner, 554 ; Pius IX, 602 
n. 2 ; Leo XIII, 602 n. 2 ; Pius X, 
602 n. 2 ; Benedict XV, 602 n. 2. 
See Papacy 

Port Arthur, ceded to Japan, 650; 

leased to Russia, 651 ; siege of, 652 
Portsmouth, Peace of, 652 n. 3 
Portugal, kingdom of, its beginnings, 
314, 315; French invasion of, 553 
Po sei'don, 64 

Posen (po'zen), given to the new 
Poland, 707 

Potato introduced into Europe,426 n. 1 
Pot i dae'a, revolt of, against Athens, 
98 

Praetorian guard, corps created by 
Augustus, 206 n. 1 ; disbanded by 
Septimius Severus, 214 
Pragmatic Sanction, 496 
Prague (prag), Treaty of (1866), 61 r 
Prax it'e les, 124 
Pride’s Purge, 471 
Printing, invention of, 366 
Prop y lae'a, the, 95 
Protectorate in England, 475-477 
Protestant Revolution. See Reforma¬ 
tion 

Protestants, origin of name, 391 ; 

divisions among, 391 
Protestation, the Great, 464 
Provei^al (pro'vaii sal') speech, 353 
Provinces, Roman, government of, 
reformed by Augustus, 202 ; condi¬ 
tion of, under the Antonines, 212 
Prussia, foundations of, laid by 
Teutonic Knights, 315; under the 
Great Elector, 493; becomes a king¬ 
dom, 493, 494 ; in eighteenth cen¬ 
tury, 493-500; regeneration of, 557; 
from Congress of Vienna to the 
World War, 604-617 
Ptol'e my, Claudius, astronomer, 140 
Ptolemy I, Soter, 117 
Public lands, Roman, 182 
Public Safety, Committee of, first, 
530 ; second, or Great, 531 
Punic War, First, 172; Second, 174— 
177 ; Third, 179 

Puritans, under Elizabeth, 422 ; rule 
of, 478 

Pyramids, the, 16; as tombs, 17; 

battle of the, 540 
Pyr'rhus, 169 


Py thag'o ras, 134 
PytlPi a, the, 65 
Pythian games, 67 

Quebec, battle of, 505 
Quito (ke'to), 381 

Ra, Egyptian deity, 19 
Races of mankind, 12-14 
Racine (ra sen'), 460 
Raleigh (ra'li), Sir Walter, 426, 465 
Ra me'ses II, 17 ; mummy of, 20 
Raphael (raf'a el), 368 
Rastadt, Treaty of, 458 
Ravaillac (ra va yak'), 440 
Reason, worship of, 533 
Red Cross Society, in World War, 
700, 700 n.i 

Reform Bill, English, of 1832, 582; 

of 1867, 584; of 1884, 584 
Reformation, causes of, 383; ques¬ 
tion of indulgences, 384-386; 
Luther, 386-389. See Contents 
Re ho bo'am, 36 

Reichstag (German pronunciation 
riKs'tak), 614 

Renaissance (r^nasans': the italic e 
here has the obscure sound of e in 
"novel”), the, 363-369. See Hu¬ 
manism 

Restoration, English, 477 
Revival of Learning. See Renaissance 
Revolution, English, of 1688, 481 ; 
industrial, 508-510; American, 506; 
French, of 1789, 512-542; French, 
of July, 1830, 574; French, of Febru¬ 
ary, 1848, 574; Belgian, of 1830, 
574; Italian, of 1820, 595; Italian, 
of 1830, 595; Italian, of 1848, 596; 
German, of 1830, 606; German, of 
1848, 607; German, of 1918, 696; 
Russian, of 1917, 688, 692 
Revolutionary Tribunal French, es¬ 
tablished, 530 
Rheims (remz), 348 
Rhodes, center of Hellenistic culture, 
116 n. 1 ; school of sculpture at, 125 
Rhodes, Cecil, 641 
Richard I, king of England, 312 
Richard III, 349 

Richelieu (resh lye'), Cardinal, 440,441 
Ridley, 419 

Rienzi (re en'ze), tribune of Rome, 359 
Rights, English Bill of, 483 


INDEX 


XXIX 


Rights of Man, French declaration 
of (1789), 523 

Robespierre (ro bes pyef), in Com¬ 
mittee of Public Safety, 530 ; death, 
536 

Rojestvensky (rb zhesfven ski), Rus¬ 
sian admiral, 652, n. 2 
RS'land, paladin, 277 n. 2 
Roland (ro Ion'), Madame, 532 
Rollo, Scandinavian chief, 285 
Romagna (r 5 man'ya), the, 599 
Roman colonies. See Colonies 
Roman Empire, definitely established 
by Augustus, 200-202; greatest ex¬ 
tent under Trajan, 210; sale of, by 
the pretorians, 213; its final division, 
224 ; fall of the, in the West, 231; 
restored by Charlemagne, 278 ; re¬ 
newed by Otto the Great, 281. See 
Eastern Empire and Holy Roman 
Empire 

Roman law, 238, 267 
Roman roads, 171 
Romance languages, 265 
Romance nations, 264 
Romanoff or Romanov (r 5 ma'nof), 
House of, 485 

Rome, early society and government, 
1 50-156 ; under the kings, 157, 1 58 ; 
sacked by the Gauls, 164; com¬ 
pared with Carthage, 172; sacked 
by Alaric, 226 ; sacked by the Van¬ 
dals, 230 ; capital of the kingdom of 
Italy, 600 

Rom'u lus, king of Rome, 157 
Romulus Augustus, last emperor of 
the West, 231 

Roncesvalles (ron se valdes ; Sp. r 5 n- 
thes vaPyes), Pass of, 277 n. 2 
Roses, Wars of the, 348, 349 
Rosetta Stone, the, 19 
Ross'bach, battle of, 497 
Ros'tra, 163 
Rouen (roo on'), 285 
Rougetde Lisle (robzha'delel), 527ml 
Rousseau (rob so'), 516 
Rubicon, river, 184; crossed by 
Caesar, 193 

Rumania or Roumania (roo ma'ni a), 
210, 623 n. 2, 686 

Rumelia or Roumelia (rbo mefii a), 
Eastern, 623 n. 2 
Runnymede (run'i med), 342 
Ru'rik, Scandinavian chief, 284 


Russia, the Mongol invasion, 326, 
359; rise of Muscovy, 359; under 
Peter the Great, 485-490; under 
Catherine the Great, 490 ; from the 
Congress of Vienna to the World 
War, 620-627 ; Revolution of 1917, 
688 

Russo-Japanese War, 651 
Russo-Turkish War, of 1828-1829, 
620; of 1877-1878, 622 
Rys'wick, Treaty of, 457 

Saar (zar) basin, mines of, given to 
France, 707 

Sabbath, adopted as day of rest by 
Constantine, 220 
Sadowa (sa/do va), battle of, 611 
Sa gun'tum, taken by Hannibal, 174 
St. Augustine, Aurelius, 238 
St. Bartholomew’s Day, massacre of, 
43 6 

St. Benedict, 258 

St. Ber'nard, preaches crusade, 311 n. 2 
St. Boniface (bon'e fass). See Winfrid 
St. Dom'i nic, 320 
St. Francis, 320 

St. Germain (sarf zhefmarf), Treaty 
of (1919), 709 n. 1 
St. Helena, 564 
St. Jerome, 237 

St. John, Knights of. See Hospitalers 
St. Mihiel (sail me yeP) salient, 699 
St. Patrick, 255 
St. Peter, 207, 260 
St. Peter’s, Rome, 368 
St. Petersburg, founded, 489 
Sakhalin (sa ka len'), 652 n. 3 
SaPa din, 312 
SaPa mis, battle of, 90 
Salisbury, Gemot of, 300 
Sallust, historian, 236 
Saloniki (sa lo ne'ke), 684 n. 1 
Samaria, captured by Sargon II, 37 
Samnite Wars, 168 
San Stefa n 5 , Treaty of, 623 n. 1 
Sans Souci (san sob se'), 500 
Sappho (saf'o), 128 
Safa cus, king of Nineveh, 30 
Sarajevo (sa ra ya'vo), 674 n. 1 
Sardinia, kingdom of, in Crimean 
War, 598; war with Austria, 598; 
annexations of territory, 599, 600; 
becomes kingdom of Italy, 599 
Sar'dis, capital of Lydia, 42 


XXX 


INDEX 


Sar'gon I, 26 
Sar'gon II, 30 

Sa vo na ro'la, Girolamo (je rd'la mo), 
362 

Saxony, becomes a kingdom, 551 n. 2 
Scandinavians, as pirates and colo¬ 
nizers, 282-285 

Schleswig (shlas'viK.) or Sleswick, 
duchy of, annexed to Prussia, 610; 
part of, subject of a plebiscite, 707 
Schleswig-Holstein War, 610 
Schliemann (shle'man), Dr., 60, 61 n. 1 
Schoolmen, 337-339 
Scipio, Publius Cornelius (Africanus 
Major), defeats Hannibal at Zama, 

177 

Scipio, Publius Cornelius /Emilianus 
(Africanus Minor), 179 
Scone (skbon), Stone of, 344 
Scotland, wars with England, 344; 
union of Scottish and English 
crowns, 345; union of their par¬ 
liaments, 502 
Scriptorium, 259 
Sculpture, Greek, 123-125 
Sedan (se don'), capitulation of, in 
Franco-Prussian War, 576 
Seine (san), river, 285 
Se ja/nus, 206 

Se leu^i dee, kingdom of the, 117 
Se leu'cus Ni ca'tor, 117 
Senate, Roman, under the kings, 152 ; 
number of senators reduced to six 
hundred by Augustus, 202 
Sen'e ca, moralist, Nero’s tutor, 207 ; 

his teachings, 237 
Sen e gal', 643 
Sen naeh'e rib, 30 
Separatists, 422 
Se'poy Mutiny, 639 
Sep'tu a gint, the, 133 
Serbia, independence of, 623 n. 2 ; its 
relations to Austria-Hungary, 674; 
in the World War, 684 
Serfs, under feudal system, 287; 

Russia emancipates, 624 
Ser ve'tus, 394 
Servile War, First, 181 
Servius Tullius, his reforms, 158 
Sesostris. See Rameses II 
Se vas'to p 5 l, siege of, 622 
Seven Hills, the, of Rome, 157 
Seven Sages, the, 134 
Seven Weeks’ War, 610 


Seven Years’ War, 496-498, 505 
Sevigne (sa venya'), Madame de, 
460 n. 1 

Shakespeare, 465 
Sib'yl line Books, 155 
Sicilian expedition, the, 102 
Sicily, Greek colonies in, 76; at the 
beginning of the First Punic War, 
173 

Sidon, 39 

Siegfried (seg'fred), 358 
Sieyes (se ayas'), 521 
Silesia (slle'shla), seized by Frederick 
the Great, 496; part of, given to the 
new Poland, 707 
Sim'o ny, 305 n. 1 

Siraj-ud-Daula (se rii'jddd dow'la),5o6 
n. 1 

Siwah (see'wa), oasis of, 112 
Slave trade, African, beginning of 
the, 372 ; England abolishes, 508 
Slavery, among the Greeks, 145; in 
early Rome, 151 ; general state¬ 
ments respecting, 243; abolished 
in English colonies, 583 n. 1 
Slaves, number in Middle Ages, 289 
n. 1 

Slavs, at opening of Middle Ages, 
249. See Russia 
Smo lensk', 559 
Smyrna, 709 n. 1 

Social War, 183; comments upon 
results, 184 
Socialism, 632 

Socrates, his trial and death, 106; his 
teachings, 136 
Sog di a'na, 113 

Solferino (sol fe re'no), battle of, 598 
Solomon, king of Hebrews, 36 
Sodon, 81 

Sol'y man, the Magnificent, Sultan, 400 
Somme (som), first battle of the, 685 
n. 4 

Sophists, the, 135 
Soph'o cles, tragic poet, 130 
South Africa, England in, 640; Union 
of, 641 ; in the World War, 641 
Spain, conquest of, by Saracens, 
274 ; early history, 355-357 ; under 
Charles V, 399-403 ; under Philip 
11,404,405; under Philip III, 405; 
war with Netherlands, 428-434; in 
the Napoleonic Era, 553 
Spanish colonies, beginnings, 380 


INDEX 


XXXI 


Spanish Fury, the, 431 

Spanish Succession, War of the, 457 ; 

England’s gains in, 501 
Sparta, early history, 69-72 
Spar'ta cus, leader of gladiators, 188 
Spartan supremacy (404-371 b.c.), 
105-108 

Spenser, Edmund, 427 
Spinning jenny invented, 509 
Spor'a des, the, 55 
Stadium \pl. stadia), 122 
Stanley, Henry M., 634, 635 
States-General, French, 353 ; of 1789, 

. 518 

Stein (stln), Baron vom, 558 
Stil'i cho, Roman general (Vandal 
born), 225, 228 

Stoessel (stes'sel), Russian general, 
652 n.1 

Stoics, the, 138 
Stone Age, New, 5 ; Old, 2-5 
Strafford, Thomas Wentworth, Earl 
of, 467, 470 

Strasburg (Ger. Strassburg; Fr. Stras¬ 
bourg), oath of, 281 ; seized by 
Louis XIV, 456 

Stuart, House of, in England, 462- 
472, 480-482 

Submarine warfare, German, 682, 
687, 693, 703 

Sulla, Lucius Cornelius, given com¬ 
mand against Mithradates, 186 ; his 
proscriptions, 187; made dictator, 
188 ; his abdication and death, 188 
Sully (sul'i), Duke bf, 439 
Su'ni um, cape, 96 

Supremacy, Act of, under Henry 
VIII, 413; under Elizabeth, 421 
Surat (sob rat'), English at, 464 
Susa, taken by Alexander, 113 
Sweden, in Thirty Years’ War, 445 ; 
gain in Peace of Westphalia, 445; 
union with Norway, 568 n. 1 
Swiss Confederation, the, becomes 
independent of Holy Roman Em¬ 
pire, 445 ; French intervention in, 
540 ; as a federal state, 656 
Swiss Guards, of Tuileries, 527 
Switzerland. See Swiss Co7ifederation 
Syb'a ris, founded, 76 
Symposium, the, features of, 144 
Syracuse, founded, 76; in the Pelo¬ 
ponnesian War, 102 
Syria, made a Roman province, 117 


Tacitus, historian, 237 
Talleyrand (tab! rand), 561 
Tal'mud, 38 

Tamerlane'. See Timur 
Tannenberg (tan'nen berk), battle of, 
681 n. 2 

Taras. See Tarentum 
Tarentum, Greek colony, 75; war 
with Rome, 169 

Tarquinius Superbus, king of Rome, 
I5 8 

Tar'ta rus, in Greek myth, 64 
Te lem'a chus, monk, 226 
Templars, order of the, origin, 311 
Ten Thousand, the, 105 
Ter'ence, dramatist, 235 
Terror, Reign of, 531-537 
Test Act, repealed, 587 
Tetzel, John, 385-387 
Teutonic Knights, order of the, origin, 
311 ; in Baltic region, 315; secular¬ 
ized, 390 

Teutons, migrations, 227 ; kingdoms 
established by, 250-253; their con¬ 
version, 254-256; fusion with the 
Latins, 264-267 
Tha'les, 134 

Theater's, Grecian, description of, 122; 
entertainments of, 143; Roman, 
233 ; entertainments of, 240 
Theban supremacy, 108 
Thebes, in Greece, seized by the 
Spartans, 107 ; hegemony of, 108 
The mis'to cles, his naval policy, 87; in¬ 
terprets the oracle of the " wooden 
walls,” 90 

The oc'ri tus, poet, 133 

The od'o ric, king of the Ostrogoths, 

2 5 ° 

Theodosius (the o do'shi us) I, the 
Great, Roman emperor, 223 
Ther'mae, Roman, 234 
Ther mop'y Ise, battle of, 88 
Theseus (the'sus), king of Athens, 79 
Thes'sa ly, description of, 52 
The'tes, 81 

Thiers (tyer), 578 n. 1 
Third Estate, the, beginnings of, in 
the towns, 334; French, under 
the Bourbons, 514 
Thirty Years’ War, the, 442-448 
Thor, German deity, 255 
Thorvaldsen (tor'vald zen), 527 n. 1 
Thu 9yd'i des, the historian, 131 


XXX11 


INDEX 


Tiber, river, 147 
Tiberine Republic of 1798, 540 
Tiberius, Roman emperor, 206 
Tiers Etat (tyer za ta'). See Third Es¬ 
tate 

Tigris, valley of the, 24 
Tilsit, Treaty of, 551 
Ti'mon, the misanthrope, 101 
Timur (te moor'), Mongol conqueror, 

3 2 5 

Tl'ryns, 53 
Titian (tish'an), 368 
Titus, Roman emperor, 209 
Tobacco, introduced into Europe, 
426 n. 1 

Todleben (tot'laben), 622 
Tb'gb, Japanese admiral, 652 n. 1 
Toulon (too Ion'), 540 
Tournament (tbor'na ment), the, 296 
Tours (tobr), battle of, 273 
Towns, mediaeval, 329-334. See Han¬ 
seatic League 

Townshend, British general, 692 n. 3 
Traf al gar', naval battle of, 550 
Trajan, Roman emperor, 209 
Transmigration, Hindu doctrine of, 48 
Trans-Siberian Railway, 646 
Transvaal (transval'), the, 640; be¬ 
comes Transvaal Colony, 641 
Tran syl va'ni a, 686 
Treitschke (tritsh'ke), Professor, 
quoted, 661 n. 1 
Trent, Church Council of, 392 
Trentino (tren te'no) ceded to Italy, 
7°9 n - 1 

Trianon (tre a non') palace, 706 
Tri bb'ni an, Roman jurist, 238 
Tribunes, plebeian, first, 160 
Trieste (tre est'), ceded to Italy, 709 
n. 1 

Triple Alliance, of 1882, 615, 616 n. 1 
Triple Entente (on tonC), the, 667 
Trip'o li, seized by Italy, 673 
Triumph, last, at Rome, 225 
Triumvirate, First, 190; Second, 196 
Trojan War, legend of, 60 
Trou'ba dours, the, 354 
Trouveurs (troo vSC), the, 354 
Troyes (trwa), Treaty of, 347 n. 1 
Tudor, House of, 407 n. 1 
Tuileries (twe'le riz), 527 
Tunis, French protectorate, 643 
Turanians. See Mongols and Turks 
Turgot (tiir go'), 5 X 7 


Turks, Ottoman, beginnings of their 
empire, 327 ; their conquests, 327 ; 
wars with Russia (1828-1829), 620 ; 
(1853-1856), 621 ; (1877-1878),622; 
revolution of 1908, 671 ; empire dis¬ 
membered, 709 n. 1 
Turks, Seljuk (sel jobk'), 309 
Twelve Tables, the, 162-164 
Tyne (tin), the, 210 
Ty'phSn, 19 

Tyrants, the Greek Age of, 77, 78 
Tyre, 39 

Uitlanders (oitdand erz), 640 
Ukraine (u'kran), 692 
Ulm (dolm), 549 
Umbria, 146 

Uniformity, Act of, under Edward VI, 
418; under Elizabeth, 421 
United Provinces. See Netherlands 
United States, independence of, 507 ; 
expansion of, 647 ; purchases Dan¬ 
ish West Indian islands, 647 n. 1 ; 
enters the World War, 689 ; prepa¬ 
rations during 1917,691 ; her effort 
in 1918, 696-701 

Universities, 335-337- See Schoolmen 
Utrecht (ii'trekt), Treaty of (1579), 

43 1 5 ( I 7 I 3 )» 45 s 

Valens, Roman emperor, 222 n. 1 
Val en tin'i an I, Roman emperor, 222 
n. 1 

Valladolid (val ya th 5 leth'), 429 
Valmy (val me'), battle of, 528 
Valois (valwa'), House of, 435 n. 1 ; 
history of France under, in the six¬ 
teenth century, 435-438 
Vandals, kingdom of the, in Spain, 
227 ; in Africa, 227 ; sack Rome, 
230; destroyed by Belisarius, 251 
Vane, Sir Henry, 473 
Vaudois (vo dwa'), 402 
Vedas (ve'daz va'daz), sacred books 
of the Hindus, 48 
Veii (ve'yl), 166 
Vendee (von da'), La, 529 
Ve ne'tia, ceded to Austria, 539; 
joined to Napoleon’s kingdom of 
Italy, 549; becomes part of the 
new kingdom of Italy (1866), 600 
Venice, its beginnings, 229; takes part 
in Fourth Crusade, 312 ; sketch of 
history, 332 


INDEX 


XXXlll 


Verdun', Treaty of, 280; German 
siege of (1916), 685 
Vergil, 203, 235 

Versailles (versalz'; Fr. pron. ver- 
say'), palace of, 459; Treaty of 
t (1919). 7057710 
Vesle (val), river, 699 
Vespasian (ves pa'zhi an), Flavius, 
Roman emperor, 208 
Vesta, worship of, at Rome, 155 
Vi'a Ap'pia , construction begun, 169 
Victor Emmanuel I, king of Sardinia, 
594 

Victor Emmanuel II, king of Italy, 597 
Victor Emmanuel III, 601 n. 1 
Vienna (vi en'a), Congress of, 566-570 
Villafranca (vel la frang'ka), Peace of, 

599 

Villain. See Serfs 
Vimy (ve me') Ridge, 702 
Vin do bo'na, 212 
Vinland, 283 

Virginia, origin of name, 426 
Vis'i goths, cross the Danube, 222; 
reduced to submission by Theo¬ 
dosius, 223 ; invade Italy, 225 ; 
second invasion, 226; establish 
kingdom in Spain, 251 
Vladivostok (via de vos tok'), 646 
Volscians (vol'shi anz), 161 
Voltaire (vol ter'), 499, 515 

Wagram (va'gram), battle of, 554 
Wal den'ses, 401 
Wallachia (wo la'ki a), 621 
Wallenstein (woken stin; Ger. pron. 

val'len shtln), 443, 444 
Walpole, Sir Robert, 503 
Warsaw, Grand Duchy of, formed, 551 
Wartburg (vart'boork), Luther at, 389 
Waterloo, battle of, 563 
Watt, James, 509 
Wed'mbre, Treaty of, 284 
Wellesley, Sir Arthur. See Wellington 
Wellington, Arthur Wellesley, Duke 
of, in Portugal, 554; at Waterloo, 563 
Wentworth, Thomas. See Strafford 
Weser (va'zer), river, 446 
Wesley, Charles, 504 
Wesley, John, 504 

Western Empire (Teutonic). See Char¬ 
lemagne and Holy Roman Empire 
Westphalia, Peace of, 445; kingdom 
Oi, 553 


Whitefield (hwit'feld), George, 504 
Wilberforce, William, 508 
William I, the Conqueror, king of 
England, 299-301 
William III, 481, 482 
William I, the Silent, stadtholder, 430 
William I, German Emperor, as king 
of Prussia, 608; Emperor, 613; 
death, 616 

William II, accession, 616; utterances 
of, 664; extradition of, demanded 
of Holland by the Allies, 708 n. 2 
Wilson, President, address to Con¬ 
gress (April 2, 1917), 689 
Windmills, introduced into Europe 
by Crusades, 316 

Win'frid, apostle of Germany, 256 
Wisby (wiz'bi), 331 
Wit'an, the, 299 n. 1 
Wit'e na ge mot. See Witan 
Wo'den, German god, 255 
Wolfe, James, 505 
Wolsey (wdol'zi), Cardinal, 410, 412 
Woman, social position of, in Greece, 
143; at Rome, 239 
Worcester (wooster), battle of, 474 
World War, the, 661-711 
Worms (v 5 rms), Concordat of, 308; 
Diet of, 388 

Writing, invention of, 9-11 ; Egyptian 
system, 18 ; Chinese, 49 
Wiirtemberg (viir'tem berk), king¬ 
dom of, 549 

Wycliffe (wik'lif), John, 351 

Xavier (zav'i er), Francis, 396 
Xen'o phon, 106, 132 
Xerxes (zerk'sez) I, 44; invades 
Greece, 88 

Yoke, symbol of submission, 162 n. 1 
York, House of. See Roses , Wars 
of the 

Ypres (e'pr), first battle of, 680 n. 1 ; 

second, 701 
Yuste (yoos'ta), 403 

Za'ma, battle at, 176 
Zend-A ves'ta, 45 
Ze'no, the Stoic, 138 
Zeus (zus), 64 
Zo'di ac, 29 

Zorndorf (tsorn'dorf), battle of, 497 
Zo r 5 as'ter, 45 






















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